Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to the UK’s trading agreement with Canada on the British cheese industry.

As of 1 January 2024, U.K. exporters can export cheese to Canada tariff free if they do so through a Canadian importer with a licence for Canada’s “non EU” World Trade Organisation quota.

These changes only came into effect at the start of the year, and it is too early to determine the full impact.

We will continue to work closely with U.K. cheese exporters to monitor the impact of the changes, including what this means for the relationships between Canadian import licence holders and exporters.