Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on UK meat and dairy exporters of the implementation of tariffs on agri-food goods in the event of the UK reaching the end of the transition period without a deal on the future relationship with the EU.

The UK Government has always been clear that we seek a free trade agreement with the EU.

At the end of 2020 the UK will transition to Most Favoured Nation (MFN) terms with all those nations that it does not have a free trade agreement with. The UK’s new MFN schedule, the UK Global Tariff has been designed to protect UK sensitive tariff lines and certain domestic industries, with tariffs retained for products such as pork, lamb, beef and poultry.

In a non-negotiated outcome implementing the UK’s tariff schedule will most likely mean that agricultural prices for our domestic producers will increase for many livestock sectors (such as beef, pork and poultry meat).

In making any decision on tariffs the Government must regard the five principles set out in the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018 which includes the interests of producers and the desire to maintain and promote trade and productivity.

The Government will publish more detail of the economic analysis in the Tax Information and Impact Note in due course, as is standard practice to support tax policy decisions.