Northern Ireland's Brexit border: The promise of invisibility

Northern Ireland document was published with another position paper on UK's place in Eu customs

The British government has sought to bring some clarity to its plans for the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland in a position paper published on August 16. Keen to show progress on this crucial Brexit issue, the government proposes to completely avoid having a “hard border” by avoiding all physical infrastructure – such as customs posts. It proposes to exempt 80% of businesses from any customs requirements on the grounds that they are small to medium sized “local” producers, and for larger businesses suggests a “streamlined” customs procedure based on retrospective declarations.

The Northern Ireland document was