If reports are correct, the landing zone for Northern Ireland and the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement is in sight. If, by December 2020, the future trading arrangements between the UK and EU fail to obviate the need for physical infrastructure or associated checks on the land border with Ireland, the UK will face a decision: whether to extend the standstill transition period or enter into a “backstop” that would mean Northern Ireland remaining effectively in the EU’s single market for goods and agrifood, supplemented by an EU-UK customs union. It’s worth noting that an ultimate insurance policy, or backstop to the backstop, that means Northern Ireland exclusively remaining in the EU’s customs union and single market for goods will probably continue to lurk within the agreed…

Source: The Times November 12, 2018 00:02 UTC