BREXIT BORDER MADNESS: Rees-Mogg urges UK to follow Swiss model after Daily Express probe

Mr Rees-Mogg issued a rallying cry after the Daily Express saw at first hand how the Swiss manage to avoid a hard border by using technology and assessing risk.

Surrounded by EU member states, its borders with Germany, France, Italy and Austria run smoothly despite it remaining resolutely outside the customs union.

This, he said, was a prime example of how the EU is capable of resolving complex border issues when it wants to.

Mr Rees-Mogg said: “As the Daily Express reports the Swiss border is extremely effective. The system has been running for years so it would be possible to have something even more efficient between the UK and the EU."

“There is no need for a hard border in Northern Ireland, or for controls to be at the border, they can all be arranged remotely.

“If the bureaucrats in Zurich can find a solution to the border I am sure the mandarins of Whitehall can do even better.

“The Swiss model is an example of what can be achieved if the political will is there.”

Northern Ireland has become a key battleground in a tug of war between London and Brussels over what happens once the UK leaves the bloc in March next year.

But the ease with which £425billion worth of goods passes in and out of Switzerland every year makes a mockery of the EU’s position that Northern Ireland might have to remain in the EU customs union while the rest of the UK leaves it.

Switzerland remains outside the customs union yet each day 2.1 million people, 1.1 million cars and 24,000 lorries cross the border, making it one of the busiest in Europe.

Running the Swiss digital frontier costs £639 million a year, a figure in stark contrast with the £20billion HM Revenue and Customs claimed a frictionless border might cost businesses in administration costs.

Switzerland’s economic and trade relations with the EU are governed by a series of bilateral agreements whereby the Swiss take control of certain aspects of EU legislation in exchange for accessing part of the single market.

Yesterday the Daily Express was given exclusive access to customs controls on the Basel-Weil am Rhein autobahn straddling Switzerland and Germany.

Hold-ups are a rarity for both domestic and heavy good vehicles. Border guards evaluate the bulk of traffic based on intelligence and risk with around one in 10 cars pulled over for security checks.

The Daily Express reporting team crossed the busy border into Germany and back again without any delay.

Hardline Europhiles want the EU to apply standard customs checks to any goods coming into its customs union through the Irish Republic.

But at the Swiss border the process is seamless with a digital customs system which Brexiteers say could be replicated with ease in Northern Ireland.

For transit goods passing through Switzerland to the rest of Europe, vehicle and driver particulars are electronically verified at a border checkpoint.

Each driver has a smart card recording the load of the vehicle, weight and number of miles driven. The card is scanned at the checkpoint without the driver leaving his cab and takes a maximum of two and a half minutes.

The Swiss do not collect tariffs on behalf of the EU because most drivers carry pre-paid transit documents with officials saying 80 per cent of customs clearance takes place either before or after the border.

The slick operation bears similarities to the UK Government’s “maximum facilitation” plan where goods would be electronically tracked and pre-cleared with tax authorities.

At the customs post on the Basel-Weil am Rhein autobahn, Switzerland’s busiest, imported goods are declared at a forwarding agency post which receives advanced notice of the load before documents are verified by Swiss customs. Officials say 95 per cent of the paperwork is above board and clearance takes around 20 minutes. Lorries are assessed according to risk with suspect vehicles electronically scanned.

Figures from the Federal Government show that last year trade between Switzerland and the EU was worth £100 billion on goods weighing 17 billion tons.

Rolf Tschudi, head of the Swiss Federal Customs Administration [FCA], said: “When it comes to checks the FCA must keep a sense of proportion. We want to carry out effective and efficient checks.

“Our specialists often determine within a fraction of a second whether or not a check is appropriate.

“The FCA is moving towards the future. It is to become less complex and more digitalised but one thing will stay the same - the guarantee of comprehensive security and safety for the public, the economy and the state.”

Prime Minister Theresa May is committed to leaving the customs union and single market and has pledged to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, which will remain in the EU. But it depends on the outcome of fractious talks with the EU.

The UK has proposed two post-Brexit customs models. The first is a customs partnership under which the UK would collect tariffs on behalf of the EU.

The alternative is the so-called “maximum facilitation” plan which would use technology to avoid a hard border and inevitable time-consuming and costly checks.

At the moment there are a single set of rules governing the flow of food, phytosanitary and veterinary products across the Irish border, but a hard border could see the reintroduction of lengthy customs checks.

Brexiteers say this could be avoided if technology is in place.

Switzerland rejected EU membership in 1992 and has instead signed more than 100 bilateral agreements with the EU, including the free movement of people and agriculture.

Meanwhile, the FCA is embarking on a £300 million technology upgrade to its digital border, further reducing the need for costly and time consuming searches by customs officials.

Swiss customs officer Marco Lori said: “It is not necessary to be part of a customs union or single market to have a smoothly working border, we are an example of that.

“This is not a hard border. It is not necessary to stop and search every vehicle because we have the technology in place and make assessments based on risk.

“We have a fully electronic process that enables us to distinguish between transit goods and customs clearance and it works very well.”

Under the “max fac” plan technology would allow trusted traders to cross the Northern Ireland and other EU borders freely. They say it would reduce customs controls and the need for border barriers, making crossings frictionless as possible. Goods would be electronically tracked and pre-cleared with tax authorities.

The model under which tariffs are collected for the EU would cost £700 million to set up but could be said to come at zero cost to business, Mr Thompson estimated.

Tory MEP David Campbell Bannerman said: “I regularly use a Swiss airport that the border between Switzerland and France runs right through. There is a customs post right in the middle of the airport which is unmanned. You can walk back and forward between the two countries to your heart’s content.

“The Swiss have come up with an online form customs form for people to make declarations when crossing into the country. It just goes to prove that borders are in computers nowadays.”

He added: “There are lots of examples of smoothly operating borders around the world such as between Norway and Sweden or Turkey’s border with the EU.

“People are using the border issue as an excuse to claim that there are a lot of problems with Brexit. The onus should be on them to explain why a Swiss solution would not work for the UK and Ireland. If you ask the experts, they don’t see that there are such problems.”

Senior Tory backbencher Sir William Cash, chairman of the Commons European Scrutiny Committee, said: “There are a whole raft of mythical assertions about the border being made for propaganda purposes within the EU that are completely unfounded. This is worse than project fear - it is project horror.”

Labour MP Kate Hoey, a leading figure in the campaign to quit the EU, said: “The reality is a technical solution to the border issue is possible and workable but needs goodwill on both sides.

“There is a border with customs checks and there are already cameras in place near the border. With common sense and goodwill, a solution using technology is feasible, as it is in many parts of the world.”

A UK Government spokesperson said: “We have set out two viable future customs arrangements with the EU - a new customs partnership without the need for any customs checks, and a highly streamlined arrangement in which EU goods would be subject to customs checks but in a way that minimises disruption through technology. Both would meet our commitments to ensuring UK-EU trade is as frictionless as possible; avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland; and enabling us to establish an independent international trade policy.”

COMMENT: Jacob Rees-Mogg, Conservative MP for North East Somerset and chairman of the pro-Brexit European Research Group

We have sent man to the moon, the bottom of the ocean, survived war, plague and the creation of the internet yet there are those who tell us that leaving the European Union’s customs union is a problem that makes solving Fermat’s Last Theorem look like a doddle.

This is manifestly not the case - the problem, in so far as it exists, is purely political and based on a number of false premises.

The main false premise is that it is not possible to leave the customs union and keep the Northern Irish border free of new infrastructure.

This has been denied clearly on multiple occasions by the head of HMRC Jon Thompson and by his Irish opposite number Niall Cody.

The second false premise is that to keep the border free flowing in Northern Ireland we will have to have a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK - unless the entire UK remains in the EU’s customs union.

Its proponents (the Irish Government) know that an Irish Sea border is impossible as it would split-up the UK but smelling caution in Westminster see no reason to let up the pressure on the customs union.

The third false premise is that we do not have enough time to develop the IT software needed to leave the customs union.

This again has been disproved by HMRC, who no doubt have already been working on it for the last two years. We already have processes for dealing with our non EU trade, we are not reinventing the wheel simply creating faster channels for all our trade.

The last false premise is that there is some happy compromise waiting to be discovered. However, customs union membership is binary and Leave won. The history of German unification in the 19th century shows how important such arrangements are in state building.

Alas, the Treasury has wasted precious months coming up with complex and unworkable alternative models that prove this essential point.

There will always be more Fair weather friends willing to compromise and wait than do the homework and take a decision – but decision time is arriving, analogue will give way to digital.

The truth is that leaving the EU’s customs union is necessary to keep faith with the referendum result and reap the benefits of Brexit. If we remain in it we will accept EU laws, collect EU taxes and have ourselves a trade policy where we are without any say – a vassal state.

Outside we can get to work on increasing our trade, creating jobs and opportunities and reducing the cost of food and clothing for our consumers.

That the customs union is still being debated two years after the referendum does not go unnoticed in the EU. The Prime Minister will shortly join the EU for negotiations at the June summit. It is to be hoped that by then Parliament will have armed her with a clear mandate to negotiate the best deal for the UK.

Defeat on some amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill would be defeat for the UK. It would l encourage the EU to toughen its stance.

The EU will demand the UK stays in the customs union, accept their laws, regulate our own economy in the EU’s interest rather than our own and deny us the ability to forge new trade links.

Westminster is suddenly alive with politicians flushed with new found interest in customs unions and the Northern Irish border.

This interest is puzzling. Why would MPs and Peers who once campaigned to stay in the EU now campaign to stay in the EU’s customs union? I have the answer, and compared to the Schleswig-Holstein question, it answer is quite simple – Lords and MPs who wish to vote to remain in the customs union wish to keep us in the EU.