Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the response by Lord Frost on 29 April (HL Deb, col 2397) that "because of legislation passed by the EU, Northern Ireland does not benefit from certain TRQs in the same way as the rest of the UK", what tariff rate quotas (TRQs) are affected; what is the specific legislation from the European Parliament referred to; and what steps they are taking to ensure that Northern Ireland can benefit from those TRQs in the same way as the rest of the UK.

On 16 December 2020, the EU unilaterally introduced Regulation 2020/2170 on the application of Union tariff rate quotas (TRQs) and other import quotas.

The UK has underlined to the Commission that this is a matter requiring urgent consideration as part of addressing issues with the operation of the Protocol. If strictly applied, the Regulation would mean that importing goods subject to any EU tariff rate quotas or other import quotas directly into Northern Ireland would be unable to access either EU or Great Britain quotas, and would need to pay the EU tariff. This would leave Northern Ireland importers in a uniquely disadvantaged position compared to their counterparts in Great Britain and the EU.

We have already taken steps to put arrangements in place to ensure that steel from the United Kingdom or the Rest of the World can be brought into Northern Ireland without being subject to tariffs. This avoids disruption to businesses and operators in Northern Ireland.

However, this is an issue requiring a broader and more permanent solution and we continue to discuss this with the EU.