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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with his EU counterparts on tariffs for UK meat exports.

Under the deal negotiated between the UK and the EU, there would be no tariffs or quotas on UK exports of meat to the EU, either during the implementation period or in the context of the future economic partnership to be negotiated.

By contrast, we expect that the EU’s most favoured nation (MFN) tariff regime would apply to UK exports in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal, and there is no indication that the EU would modify its tariff regime as a result of our departure.

As the Secretary of State said at the NFU conference in January, nobody can be blithe or blasé about the real impact on food producers of leaving without a deal.