Proposed fees regime ‘against WTO rules’
The Irish Exporters Association has said it believes the UK’s proposed tariff regime in the event of a no-deal Brexit is against World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. The announcement of the proposed tariffs sent shockwaves through various industry sectors, even though the UK said there would be no tariffs on goods travelling from the Republic into the North.
By contrast, damaging tariffs such as the 53% that would be levied on beef and 60% on poultry meat would apply to goods travelling across the Irish Sea. However, Simon McKeever, chief executive of the Irish Exporters Association, said on closer inspection “our sense is that under WTO rules they cannot unilaterally do this”.
“This is against WTO rules, to carve out part of your territory and make it separate.”
However, he said that since the WTO is largely an arbitration body, it would only respond to such a situation if a complaint was lodged, meaning that in a no-deal scenario the tariff-free south-north regime could remain for a year or more. Earlier, on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme, he said Irish goods could become less competitive and be substituted by cheap foods from the EU or the rest of the world, such as beef from South America and chicken from North America, if the tariffs were introduced. John Donoghue, CEO at ifac, the farming, food, and agribusiness professional services firm, said the latest developments would have a “detrimental” effect, while Patricia King, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said: “We now know the true meaning of the British government’s mantra of ‘Brexit means Brexit’ and that the temporary tariff proposals pose a risk to tens of thousands of jobs in agri-food in particular.”
It also emerged that only one in seven small businesses in the North have made plans for a no-deal Brexit, with the Federation of Small Businesses in Northern Ireland’s head of external communications, Roger Pollen, saying “people are sitting tight” and “hoping for some clarity at the 11th hour”.
