Jim Shannon
Main Page: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)Westminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Mr Carmichael
On any objective analysis, it is very important that we get this right, and we can get it right by doing it slowly and carefully. The hon. Member for Bridlington and The Wolds (Charlie Dewhirst)—the lobster capital of Europe—referenced the report from CropLife UK. The report seeks to quantify the financial cost of a cliff-edge implementation, and puts it as high as £810 million. CropLife UK is obviously not saying, “Don’t do this,” but simply, “If you do this with no proper implementation period, there will be financial cost attached to it.” At a time when the Government’s central mission is economic growth, and when that growth must be available to every community in the country —rural as well as urban—taking that sort of risk for the political imperative of timing seems an unacceptable way of managing such an important agreement.
Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)
I thank the Chair of the Select Committee for his clear message on veterinary medicines for Northern Ireland, and for his and the Committee’s encouragement to the Minister to ensure that the agreement is in place as soon as possible. We very much welcome alignment between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, and the report highlights that an SPS agreement could significantly reduce regulatory friction between Great Britain and Northern Ireland by aligning standards, which could potentially remove physical checks and “Not for EU” labelling requirements. However, did the right hon. Member and his Committee consider the fact that the Government cannot exercise re-entrance to Europe by the back door? How can the Government ensure that seeking a tailor-made UK deal for all is their approach?
Mr Carmichael
If our ultimate destination were re-entry, whether by the back door or front door, I suspect that the hon. Gentleman and I might struggle to find a common position. Let us be clear what we are dealing with. An SPS agreement is tightly drawn, and is about our food producers having frictionless access so that they can get their products to market in our single biggest market. That is why there is a real opportunity here.
To my mind, the veterinary medicines agreement, for example, goes beyond trade; it is a matter of animal welfare. Allowing questions of constitution to get in the way of providing the animal welfare products we need, in any part of the United Kingdom, would be unforgivable.