Brexit-supporting rebels in British Prime Minister Theresa May’s party yesterday made proposals that they said would allow trade to flow over the Irish border, while safeguarding the integrity of the EU’s single market.
The issue of preventing a hard border between the UK’s Northern Ireland and the EU’s Irish Republic is one of the main outstanding sticking points in negotiations between London and Brussels.
Both sides want to avoid such a hard border, because it could undermine a 1998 peace agreement that ended decades of sectarian conflict in the north, but it is still unclear how goods crossing between the EU and the UK in Ireland would be monitored once the UK has left the EU’s customs union and the single market.
Lawmakers from the influential anti-EU European Research Group (ERG), who oppose May’s Brexit plan in favor of a cleaner break with the EU, said existing systems and technology could be used, and any extra checks could take place away from the border.
“Rational, pragmatic approaches can ensure that the vital trade across the border is maintained. This allows the United Kingdom to conduct an independent trade policy without threatening the integrity of the EU single market,” the ERG said in a report.
Existing electronic procedures allow customs declarations to be made ahead of travel, inspections can be done at the point of shipment and any additional declarations could be incorporated into the existing system used to return value-added tax, the group said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
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Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique