Commons Sense

Hansard-based summaries and metrics

EU Veterinary Agreement 2022-01-20

2022-01-20

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Response quality

Questions & Answers

Q1 Partial Answer
Stephen Farry
▸ Context
The UK has recently signed free trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand, raising questions about the potential impact on future agreements with the EU.
What assessment have you made of the implications of the Australia and New Zealand free trade agreements for concluding a veterinary agreement with the EU?
Anne-Marie Trevelyan
Nothing in the UK-Australia or UK-New Zealand agreements prevents the UK from reaching a veterinary agreement with the EU. Our agreements allow the UK to co-operate with both Australia and New Zealand and with the EU to avoid unnecessary sanitary and phytosanitary barriers to trade in agrifood, without constraining the UK's right to regulate in those areas.
▸ Assessment & feedback
The specifics of how FTAs impact the nature or scope of a future veterinary agreement with the EU were not addressed.
Response accuracy
Q2 Partial Answer
Stephen Farry
▸ Context
The UK's largest export market remains the EU, prompting concerns about ongoing trade frictions and the impact of free trade agreements on veterinary agreements.
Given that the European Union will remain the UK's largest export market for the foreseeable future, should not the priority be to remove all remaining non-tariff barriers, especially to help our UK agrifood exporters? Also, does the Minister recognise that other free trade agreements risk restricting the nature of any EU veterinary agreement to one based on equivalence rather than alignment?
Anne-Marie Trevelyan
We are clear that we want goods to be able to travel from Great Britain to Northern Ireland without unnecessary barriers, and the Government continue to be in intense discussions with the EU with the aim of delivering significant changes to the protocol. This includes a green channel for goods in and out of Northern Ireland and no further checks or documentation for goods moving between GB and Northern Ireland.
▸ Assessment & feedback
The specific risk that FTAs might restrict the nature of an EU veterinary agreement was not addressed.
Response accuracy