Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of tariffs imposed by the EU on the competitiveness of the UK's export of (a) eggs, (b) cereals, (c) fruit and (d) vegetables to the EU; and what assessment he has made of the potential effect of such tariffs on the agricultural sector.

The Government’s priority is to leave the EU with a deal, ensuring that goods trade with the EU remains tariff free. If the UK leaves the EU without a deal in place, both the UK and EU would be subject to their respective Most Favoured Nation (MFN) rules for trade in goods. The EU has been clear that they would apply their MFN tariffs on UK exports in this scenario. We anticipate that the application of EU tariffs on UK exports would have some negative impacts on the UK farming sector, on produce where a high proportion of production is exported to the EU.