Trump’s trade demands add to May’s Brexit woes

Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said the idea of the Chequers plan is that the UK would run two tariff regimes at the border — the EU’s and the UK’s.

The importer would pay the higher tariff, but could claim the lower UK tariff only if the final sale of the product is within the UK To claim the lower tariff, the importer could either join a new trusted-trader scheme, which would mean regular supply-chain audits, or it could pay the EU tariff, and then claim the duty back upon proof of sale in the UK.

Lowe said the proposal would “reduce the likelihood of importers making use of the lower UK tariff on imports from, for example, the US., as the administrative burden is higher.”