Asked by: Lord Hannan of Kingsclere (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what impediments remain in the way their ambition to eliminate tariffs on fresh produce imported from Morocco.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and Department for Business and Trade (DBT) are working closely together to negotiate a balanced and equitable outcome for the Morocco Agriculture Tariff Review, which is a commitment both sides made under the UK-Morocco Association Agreement. We continue to work closely with the Moroccan government to further liberalise any remaining tariffs and maximise trade under the agreement. At the launch of the tariff review last year, we discussed a range of priority sectors, including fresh produce like fruits and vegetables which constitute around 35% of all goods imported from Morocco to the UK. Whilst we are keen to diversify the supply of imported Moroccan goods on UK shelves and seek opportunities to expand exports of British food and drink, we will ensure that this is not done at the expense of British farmers, their produce, and the seasonal nature of UK production more generally.
Asked by: Lord Hannan of Kingsclere (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost of applying the EU’s REACH Regulation (1907/2006); and what assessment they made, if any, of that cost compared to the risk-based regime that predated REACH.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
In 2006, Defra produced a Partial Impact Assessment ahead of the implementation of EU REACH [please see attached]. It forecasts the cost to UK industry of implementing EU REACH to be £404m. The costs associated with supporting HSE in its role as the UK competent authority under EU REACH since it came into force are estimated at around £15m. A comparative assessment of these costs and the regime that predated EU REACH, is not available.
In 2018, the European Commission published an evaluation of EU REACH. It found that costs to industry for the first two registration deadlines amounted to €2.3- 2.6 billion. Dossier evaluation costs were estimated at €200 million. Restriction costs were estimated at €170 million per year.