Brexit: Backstop proposal mentions the possibility of a customs buffer zone

The wild idea from a week ago looks to be mentioned in the UK/Irish border backstop proposal

About a week ago, The Sun broke a story that David Davis was working on a economic/customs buffer zone as one way of providing a solution to the issue. That got loudly poo-poo’d by all and sundry but I’ve been reading through the just-released proposal and there seems to be a mention of some sort of joint customs area;

“The suggested drafting change to the EU’s proposed legal text in Box 1 delivers this objective by applying the provision to the whole of the UK. This could be given effect through providing that the territory of the UK would form part of the EU’s customs territory or creating a new customs territory comprising the customs territories of the UK and the EU. The UK proposes that the UK and EU should discuss both options.”

It looks like it’s an option being put forward and we’ll have to see how the EU respond to it. Remember though, that this is still all ‘Plan B’ and that ‘Plan A’ is still a long way off.

If you want to read the full backstop, you can do so here. UK Brexit backstop proposal