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Courtesy of the Sunday Times.
The business secretary has suggested that a transition period on customs with the EU could be extended in order to protect jobs. Speaking on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show, Greg Clark said that it would take some time for new customs arrangements to be put in place, adding that it was possible that the process could take until 2023. He also indicated that a “customs partnership”, which is opposed by Brexiteers, was still under consideration. A decision on the government’s preferred customs option was postponed this week after Theresa May’s Brexit “war cabinet” failed to reach an agreement. Mr Clark said: “I think it would be a mistake to move from one situation to another to a third. “If we can make progress as to what. . . the right arrangement is for the long term, then it may be possible to bring that in over that period of time.”
Asked if the transition could be extended until Britain was ready, he said: “It wouldn’t be a question of extending the transition. It would be, as it were, implementing as soon as you can do . . . there will be different parts that can be done immediately. There will be things that will take more time.” Mr Clark said that it was crucial to protect jobs as companies made decisions about future production. He used Toyota as an example, acknowledging that there were fears over how its manufacturing model would operate with customs checks. The company employs 3,500 people in the UK, Mr Clark said, adding that jobs had to be at the forefront of Britain’s future customs model.
He was backed by Amber Rudd, the former home secretary, who said Mr Clark was right to argue the case “for a Brexit that protects existing jobs and future investment”. Jacob Rees-Mogg, a leading Brexiteer, warned that the customs partnership model would effectively mean remaining in the EU.
He told ITV’s Peston On Sunday: “This ‘Project Fear’ has been so thoroughly discredited that you would have thought it would have come to an end by now. “We trade successfully all over the world. The delays on goods coming into Southampton are tiny.”
