CANADIAN FORCES BASE BAGOTVILLE, Quebec (Reuters) - Britain expects to have a permanent solution on post-Brexit customs arrangements in place by the end of 2021 at the latest, and it does not want to use the backstop arrangement it has proposed to Brussels in case of delays, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Thursday.
"We expect that that end-state customs agreement will, at the latest, be in by December 2021, and we’ll be working to make sure that it is in earlier than that," May told reporters on her way to the G7 summit in Canada. When asked twice if she could guarantee that outcome, she did not directly reply.
May wants the permanent solution ready by the end of December 2020, but earlier on Thursday she proposed a one-year backstop arrangement in case of technical difficulties in setting up a new system. Neither the new system nor the backstop have been agreed yet by Brussels.