DUBLIN:Calls from Ireland’s European Commissioner Phil Hogan for Northern Ireland to remain in the EU customs union, even if the rest of the UK is outside, have been dismissed as “a non-starter” and “hysteria” by unionists. Calls from Ireland’s European Commissioner Phil Hogan for Northern Ireland to remain in the EU customs union, even if the rest of the UK is outside, have been dismissed as “a non-starter” and “hysteria” by unionists. Mr Hogan told the Observer newspaper it was a “very simple fact” that “if the UK or Northern Ireland remained in the EU customs union, or better still the single market, there would be no border issue”. Responding, UUP MEP Jim Nicholson said: “The idea of keeping Northern Ireland in the EU customs union, with the rest of the UK outside, is a non-starter. “Across all sectors, our largest single market for external sales is Great Britain, by a large margin.” He said taking Northern Ireland out of the “UK single market” would have serious economic consequences, worsen uncertainty, and breach the Belfast Agreement. The EU has insisted that the plan for the Irish border, and the UK’s divorce bill for the EU, must be sorted out before trade talks can begin. Mr Nicholson said: “This is who blinks first. Europe appear to using the government of the Republic of Ireland to put [on] maximum pressure to get the maximum amount of money out of the UK before they move forward to the next political settlement.
Amid Hormuz instability, attention shifts to Pakistan’s Gwadar port
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