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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the evidential base is for the Government's proposal to apply zero rate tariffs for eggs and egg products.

In setting that temporary regime the Government has sought to strike a balance between the impacts on consumers and producers.

The Government considered the available evidence on tariff rates, exposure to competition, and the potential impact on business costs and employment, weighing this against the impact of tariffs on consumer prices and producers’ supply chains.

Recognising that there are significant uncertainties, the Government believes it has adopted a policy that strikes the right balance between not exposing the UK market to an unreasonable level of competition, and liberalising tariffs to maintain current supply chains and to avoid an increase in consumer prices.

The temporary tariff policy would only apply for up to 12 months. During the 12 month period, the Government will work with industry and remain responsive to businesses and consumers. We will consider exceptional changes where clear evidence is provided against the criteria set out by the five principles of the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018.

After this, the Government intends to introduce a long-term tariff regime. This would be developed over the course of the next 12 months following an appropriate public consultation process with interested stakeholders, including the eggs sector.