EU might look kindly on Labour’s customs union Brexit plan

Bloomberg

The European Union may consider the UK Labour Party’s idea of the country remaining in a customs union after Brexit acceptable—but it would come with conditions attached.
The opposition party’s plan, set out by leader Jeremy Corbyn in a speech on Monday, heaps pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May who has ruled out such a move and whose Brexit vision was dismissed as “pure illusion” by EU President Donald Tusk.
Corbyn’s policy would give the UK a similar relationship to the EU as Turkey, which isn’t an EU member but has a customs union arrangement. Unlike other non-EU members Norway and Switzerland, Turkey doesn’t have access to the bloc’s single market so doesn’t have to accept free movement of people. If Labour’s idea were to become the UK’s position, it would likely be received positively in Brussels and across the bloc because it would be seen as beneficial to EU businesses, according to two people familiar with the EU’s Brexit negotiations.
The EU would probably be prepared to give the UK a better customs arrangement than Turkey, which has to accept the terms of all EU trade deals—including, potentially, a wide-ranging arrangement with an economy as large as the US, which is still on the table—without consultation. Turkey doesn’t get full access to the markets of the countries the EU has reached the agreements with.
The plan “would need to ensure the UK has a say in future trade deals,” Corbyn said in his speech. Labour’s plan, if it became government policy, would still require approval by the 27 EU countries. While it wouldn’t solve all the current Brexit negotiation problems, it would bring a solution closer, and would make it a lot easier to overcome the problem of how to keep the Irish border invisible.