The Brexit Secretary was challenged in the Commons to explain what the UK Government proposes to do given its existing ideas failed to persuade the Republic of Ireland government during negotiations.
Mr Davis,
responding to Labour's Hilary Benn, said: "The circumstance at the moment
we face is that there are a range of permutations and possibilities depending
on what the outcome is with respect to a free trade agreement and a customs
agreement.
"If
the Government achieves its primary policy of having a tariff-free,
barrier-free free trade agreement, then a customs agreement following on from
that will be a very light-touch customs agreement - in which case it would be
relatively straightforward to maintain a relatively invisible border.
"If
that is not the case, I suspect the alternatives would be expensive but not
impossible." Mr Benn,
chairman of the Exiting the EU Select Committee, had said: "It is becoming
increasingly clear there's a contradiction between, on the one hand the
Government's clearly stated desire that there should be no return to a hard
border, no customs border, and its determination to leave the customs union and
the single market."
Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer earlier
said he recognised "some of the difficulties" with the position
on Northern Ireland. He added:
"The political situation in Northern Ireland is fragile, the peace process
is too precious to put at risk by rushing a Brexit deal that doesn't have the
support of all communities.
"There
must be no return to a hard border, Northern Ireland should not be used by
either side in negotiations for political point scoring."
Source: Express