Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Government has made or contributed to any administrative determinations in the Northern Ireland protocol joint committee that would bar New Zealand (a) sheepmeat and (b) beef products accessing Northern Ireland’s markets using the preferential access set out under the UK New Zealand-specific WTO tariff rate quota commitments.

The Government has not made or contributed to any administrative determinations in the Northern Ireland Joint Committee that would bar New Zealand exporters accessing Northern Ireland’s market’s using the preferential access set out under UK New Zealand specific WTO tariff rate quota commitment.

Any such impact on New Zealand sheep meat and beef product exporters is a direct result of the EU’s unilateral introduction of Regulation 2020/2170 on the application of Union tariff rate quotas (TRQs) and other import quotas, on 16 December 2020. If strictly applied, the Regulation would mean that importers of goods subject to any EU tariff rate quotas or other import quotas directly into Northern Ireland would be unable to access either EU or UK quotas, and would therefore need to pay a tariff.

The UK has underlined to the European Commission that this is a matter requiring urgent consideration as part of addressing issues with the operation of the Protocol, though there has not yet been any resolution found through the Joint Committee. The Government equally has set out its determination to address the issues faced by New Zealand exporters at a meeting of the WTO agriculture committee on 29 March, and we continue to engage with the New Zealand government as discussions proceed.

This is one of the elements of the Protocol we have been clear should be addressed as we seek to find a new balance in how it operates, as set out in our Command Paper published on 21 July (Northern Ireland Protocol: the way forward, CP502).