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The UK must have the power to end any post-Brexit customs "support" agreement with the EU, said International Trade Secretary Liam Fox.
The Brexiteer said the UK had voted in favor of leaving the EU and that "this decision can not be outsourced to anyone else".
The United Kingdom and the European Union want to avoid a difficult Irish border after Brexit, but can not agree on how to do it.
The EU said it could not accept any arrangement that could be left unilaterally by the United Kingdom.
Prime Minister Theresa May wants to conclude a withdrawal agreement with the EU this month.
But his cabinet could not agree on the mechanism to ensure that border controls will not be reinstated if a future trade agreement is not ready in time.
Q & A: The Irish border backstop at Brexit
One option could be that the whole of the UK remains temporarily aligned with the EU Customs Union, thus avoiding the need for border customs checks until it reaches the end of the year. a free trade agreement is ready.
But party activists leave a desire to put in place a clear exit strategy.
Fox told reporters: "Our constituents have ordered us to leave the European Union and this decision can not be outsourced to anyone else. that a sovereign British government can decide. "
Earlier this week, Simon Coveney, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, tweeted that a "backstop to which the UK could terminate unilaterally would never be accepted" by Ireland or the EU.
& # 39; Pushing & # 39;
In Paris, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Jeremy Hunt said the negotiations with the EU were "in the final stages" and that he was confident that an agreement could be reached. be concluded.
But, questioned about the possibility of reaching an agreement next week, he said: "I think that seven days probably push him, but I'm optimistic.I am optimistic that there will be an agreement on Brexit but I would not want to attract a specific schedule. "
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Coveney said at the conference organized by the Irish Canada Business Association in Dublin: "I urge you to be cautious: an impending advance does not have to be taken for granted, nor in the very long term.
"Time and time again, people seem to repeat the same mistake again and again, assuming that if the British cabinet accepts something, well, then that's all, everything is agreed.
"This is a good negotiation that must be an agreement between the British government, but also with the European Union and the 27 countries represented by Michel Barnier and his negotiating team."
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The Brexit is expected to take place on March 29, 2019, following the referendum in June 2016, during which voters voted 51.9%, against 48.1%, in the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. .
Although an agreement on Brexit is 95% agreed, the backstop remains a stumbling block.
In fact, this is an insurance policy that would only be triggered if a future trade agreement is not concluded by the end of 2020 – or if this final agreement does not guarantee a "borderless" border. friction".
Indeed, it has been announced that the return of visible border controls could undermine the peace process in Northern Ireland and hurt companies operating on both sides.
If an agreement on Brexit is concluded between the UK and the EU, it must then be approved by the House of Commons and other EU Member States.
Former Brexit Secretary David Davis, who had left the cabinet following May's plan in July, told the BBC that the defeat in the House of Commons of the current plan "looked like a probability", in especially if the full legal advice was not circulated on the security plan of the Irish border.
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