Quote Originally Posted by DrPatrickBarry;645543
Suppose the UK and EU trade on WTO terms after Brexit. Suppose American apples arriving in the UK at an English port have to go through controls, but Irish apples crossing the border into Northern Ireland (also the UK) do not. Then the US could complain that its apples were discriminated against. They weren’t given equal treatment with Irish apples when they entered the UK.

The US might seek a legal ruling in WTO dispute settlement. Months or years later, the ruling might conclude that the UK had discriminated. So either checks at the English ports would have to be dropped, or checks at the Irish border would have to be set up.

In other words, while no WTO rule actually says the UK will have to set up border checks, the non-discrimination rule may force it to.



[url
https://tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2018/07/18/does-the-wto-require-countries-to-control-their-borders/[/url]
But the American apple distributor will not be being discriminated against. If there are tariffs on imported American apples then there will also be tariffs on apples coming from the Irish Republic. But these will be dealt with by electronic declarations.

Only 4% of goods entering the UK from non-EU countries is checked at Customs and most of these are documentary. Irish tax authorities told a committee of Irish parliamentarians that in 2016 “6% of import declarations were checked and less than 2% were physically checked”.