Beyond tariffs: what ‘No Deal’ would mean for the Irish border

Whether at 11pm on 29 March or at a later date, in the absence of the Withdrawal Agreement being approved or Article 50 being revoked, the UK and the EU will find themselves in a ‘no deal scenario’. Given that the joint UK and EU commitment to avoid a hard Irish border was behind the backstop that proved so unpalatable for many MPs, it is worth considering what a crash-out Brexit would look like in the Irish border region. A ‘hard’ border between Northern Ireland outside the EU and Ireland within the EU will be felt in ways that go far beyond tariffs and quotas.