Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Business and Trade
Lord Lilley
Main Page: Lord Lilley (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Lilley's debates with the Department for Business and Trade
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
Lord Lilley Excerpts(2 days, 2 hours ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Lord Lilley (Con)
Can the Minister confirm that the value of goods exported by the EU to us that will be relieved of any liability to SPS checks is five times the value of the goods that we export to the EU? So this deal is five times as valuable to the EU as it is to us. I have no objection to being generous to the EU, since I am a French farmer myself, but was it necessary to pay for the privilege of being generous by also giving away 12 years of our right to enhance our rights over fishing in UK waters, and to agree that we would pay for the privilege of implementing this deal and give up sovereignty over our right to control our SPS rules over the rest of the world?
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
We will maintain our SPS standards, as I have consistently said. I remind noble Lords that the EU remains the UK’s largest trading partner for agri-food and vice versa, so there are huge benefits in maintaining or re-establishing a lot of those European trading partners, which will benefit our farmers and consumers as well.