Common Rules for Exports (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

Lord Loomba Excerpts

Tuesday 10th November 2020 Grand Committee

[Lord Loomba (CB) [V]]

My Lords, I will make two points about these regulations. As I have said before, a multitude of retained EU law is coming through Parliament. Some legislation may better serve its purpose if, instead of amending existing EU law with multiple statutory instruments—meaning the original instrument has to be consulted as well—we had one completely new instrument. It would make the law much less complex and possibly less confusing, especially with regard to this instrument and its implications for the Northern Ireland protocol.

Secondly, the pandemic has thrown a light on the difficulties that can be faced in accessing goods from other countries, when goods are in high demand and stocks are low, such as with PPE. Even Brexit itself and the end of the transition period may cause some shortages, especially if there is no deal. What if there were a shortage of some vital product and the UK Government put quantitative restrictions on it to ensure adequate supplies within the UK? There is no fetter on the movement of goods between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, as per Article 6 of the Northern Ireland protocol. Those goods are sent across to Northern Ireland where they are needed.

In this situation, the EU does not have any quantitative restrictions on goods, as it does not have a problem with supplies. In such a scenario, can the Minister tell us what precautions are in place to stop a company selling their goods on to the EU without having to follow the same restrictions as in the rest of the UK, and thus gaining a competitive edge over other companies within the UK?