The Swiss-French border and backstop balderdash

I was talking to a man yesterday and he said that there was far too much being made of delays at the border, if and when Brexit happened. “Sealed containers” he said. “Clearance at place of origin, sealed containers, electronic reading of seal – no delay.”  As with so many things, I began to think that maybe I’d got the wrong end of the stick, so I did a bit of digging.

The Financial Times seemed a reasonable source. They describe the border between Switzerland and France. 

“Switzerland is part of the EU’s Schengen area, so there are no passport checks required for entry. For food and almost all tradeable industrial and agricultural goods, Switzerland’s regulations are also fully aligned with those of the EU. Both sides accept the others’ regulations.”

So Switzerland mimics EU regulations, which should make for the shortest of delays – none at all, maybe, as my friend yesterday suggested.   But hold: what’s this?

“Border infrastructure and customs declarations are necessary, however, because Switzerland is not part of the EU’s customs union or value added tax regime, which are separate from the single market. This difference requires both sides to build and staff a hard border with sometimes significant delays.”

So there is a hard border between Switzerland and France.  But surely the fact that the UK and the Republic of Ireland have a common travel area would mean it’d be far easier to pass from the UK to the Republic of Ireland than from Switzerland to France?

“The Swiss-French border is efficient. There are no applicable tariffs. Regulations for goods are fully aligned. There is a common travel area between the two countries without the need for passport checks. But the border requires hard infrastructure because Switzerland is not in the EU VAT regime nor its customs union. Border frictions have separated markets either side of the border to the detriment of consumers. Regulatory alignment would remove only some of Brexit’s border barriers in Ireland . The UK and Ireland should take note.”

It looks like the only way to avoid a hard border is to have your regulations – all your regulations – exactly the same as those of the EU, down to the last dot and comma. In which case a question screams for answer: why then leave the bloody EU in the first place?