Do you really believe the Irish border problem is solely down to 'technology' or in part down to the obstructive/destructive nature of politicians due to the North/South Catholic/Protestant which still has not really gone away? Most of the border issues can be resolved with pragmatism. Many road shipments use sealed containers admin and documentation for which could be prepared well in advance of the actual shipment. Customs and transportation worked OK (even for highly perishable goods) long before we had the wonders of IT, computers, internet, scanners and all the technological paraphernalia available now. Even after repeat assurances from the Euro Port authorities e.g. Calais that there will be no long queues and any disruption will be minor and short term, the media continue to play up the 25 mile queue scenario. We can put men on the moon but apparently a solution to getting a lorry full of tomatoes a few hundred miles from A to B within a day or two is beyond our capability. Put that way it is absurd and highlights a political/administration problem rather than a technical one. Given it is business and commerce that drives economies rather than Governments and bureaucrats a solution will be found and found quickly once reality hits home. Where there is a will.... and all that!
1. The Irish border is 499km long. This is nearly double the length of the Bulgaria-Turkey border. 2. It has many more border crossings - 270 compared to 3. 3. It cuts through houses, fields, driveways and roads 4. If there was an existing technology solution, why isn't it in use between Switzerland and the EU? - where both nations are in Schengen and have free movement of people (not goods) - or between Norway and Sweden? - Both borders often see delays of several hours for lorries as paperwork is checked 5. Even if there was a solution which removed the need for the backstop, the ERG and the others in the radical wing of the Tories wouldn't vote for the deal 6. Unless the cargo is checked, how do you know it was a lorry load of tomatoes, or half full of tomatoes and a family of asylum seekers, or half full of tomatoes and a crate of AK-47s or heroin. Both of those are extreme examples, but removing checks opens a big market for smuggling. Estimates of a 2 minute delay on each truck using the Dover-Calais crossing see Kent becoming pretty much a car-part within a week - and that is with checks on the French side that we do not control. 7. Unless the identity of occupants of a vehicle are checked, how do you know if they are British, Irish (or elsewhere in the CTA), or EU - who the government have announced lose freedom of movement on October 31st. And if they are EU, are they EU-resident, EU-resident in UK with settled/pre-settled status, or EU-resident in UK without settled status? You can't campaign to take back control of borders, then leave the borders open. You put a border in place, and it escalates tensions in NI (which has already seen at least one bomb this year) and causes delays for the deliveries that we rely on. I could be wrong, but if I am wrong, then so are the vast majority of the experts. If the experts are right, we are probably looking at people dying as a result of Brexit. I posted this somewhere else, but the people in charge do not have the ability to make Brexit work. Those that do have that ability would either want a much longer timescale, or are against in and wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.
2 minute delay per lorry? You seem to be contradicting yourself! (see point 4) since there are already several hours of delays for paperwork checks and yet they do not have 25 mile queues full of rotting meat, vegetables and fruit. Perishable goods such as tomatoes /lettuce etc are in refrigerated chilled vehicles so the claim that food would rot whilst waiting for clearance is tosh. As I said many checks can be carried out in advance and then a custom seal put on the vehicle. We already have the problem of stowaways (not sure how that applies to the Irish border situation anyway). Only vehicles with compartments/containers with broken seals need closer scrutiny and we already have infra red and heat sensors and under vehicle inspection cameras that vehicles drive over at the ports. The French have already stated that fast tracking of certain goods is possible. If you have been to Europoort or Calais there are hundreds of lorries and vehicles that await inspection.Lorries don't just drive on/drive off We are not in Schengen anyway so we already carry out border check as as do the French and the Netherlands We are an Island! Similarly with perishable goods and non perishable goods from non EU countries. How do you think bananas pineapples etc get here since they are not grown in the EU.. The Irish situation has nothing to do with 25 mile queues at Dover nor has smuggling AK47s since in or out checks must be carried out so how has that to do with increased delays post Brexit? Point 6 and 7 The Irish problem is one of a hard physical border which is the only way to stop smuggling, but frankly that is the problem for the EU/Eire to secure its borders since it has nothing whatsoever to do with 'security' but movement of goods and the tariffs imposed between EU state and a non EU state. Any non-EU country that borders an EU state has the same issues.
Because the EU has trade agreements with the places they are grown... If we leave the EU with no deal then we don't. We have trade agreements with no one.