Wines: Small Businesses

(asked on 1st February 2021) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support small wine traders.


Answered by
Victoria Prentis Portrait
Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
This question was answered on 9th February 2021

The Government recognises our trade in wine with the EU is economically important to UK business and jobs they support. We listened to the concerns raised by MPs and the industry during the negotiations that the introduction of VI1 certification arrangements would damage this trade and perhaps especially our smaller more specialised traders. That is why in the new UK/EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement we successfully negotiated a significant simplification to the usual VI1 certificate process. This allows producers or traders to self-certify certificates used in the movement of wine products made in the UK or the EU and moving to the other territory. Importantly, these certificates will not require any form of analysis above providing details of the alcoholic content; addressing another significant concern of the industry.

Moreover, in order to address any trade uncertainty that new certification arrangements would introduce, we provided the safeguard of an easement in certification requirements until 1 July 2021. This allows any wine imported from the EU to continue to arrive on commercial documentation, as it did when the UK was subject to EU rules.

As we look to develop our own domestic wine policy, we will continue to look to introduce simpler arrangements in our trade in wine with the EU and with other countries that supply wine to us. Scope exists to allow existing and simplified VI1 certification to be transmitted electronically, which will reduce paper and courier costs. We will look to see how this could be rolled out, but perhaps more fundamentally, we first need to consider whether there is any value in retaining the wine specific certification requirements at all.

Reticulating Splines