Pro-exit members of Theresa May's Cabinet would be willing to keep Britain tied to the European Union's customs regime for as long as five years in an effort to break the deadlock in divorce talks, people familiar with the matter said.
The prime minister is trying to renegotiate the so-called backstop guarantee for avoiding a hard border between the United Kingdom's Northern Ireland and EU member state Ireland because some Conservatives fear it will trap Britain inside the customs union indefinitely. Without their support, May can't get her deal ratified in Parliament.
So far, European officials have refused to consider major changes to the backstop provision -- including any time limit -- and the deadlock threatens to force Britain out of the EU with no deal at the end of March.
Last month, Poland's foreign minister suggested a five-year time limit would be a good way out of the impasse. Although the idea was quickly knocked down by EU and Irish leaders, a number of senior pro-exit members of May's top team privately said they would be willing to accept such a long-term commitment, according to people familiar with the situation, who asked not to be named.
Escaping the bloc's customs and tariff regime -- to strike free-trade deals around the world -- is a key prize of the departure in the eyes of those who campaigned for Britain to leave the EU.
In talks in Brussels, May has been suggesting a time limit to the backstop, although she has not set out how long this should be. Many staunch exit supporters would accept a year with the backstop provision, but ministers in May's Cabinet, among other senior exit backers, are now ready to be more flexible.
Whether May can sell such a long period with the backstop to other pro-exit members of her party is a more difficult question.
May would also need to sell the idea to the EU even though the bloc has shown no signs of ditching its long-standing pledge to defend the interests of Ireland, which wants the guarantee on the border to be open-ended. May spoke by phone to the leaders of Poland, Lithuania and Estonia on Friday as part of her campaign to find a compromise. But according to one person familiar with the situation, she made no new proposals on how to break the impasse.
The backstop would maintain current customs and tariff rules, along with key regulatory requirements, to avoid the need for border checks on goods crossing the land frontier between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. The policy would come into force after the status quo post-exit transitional period came to an end, if no new trade agreement were in place that would make customs checks at the border unnecessary.
Information for this article was contributed by Milda Seputyte of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 02/17/2019