Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the European Commission's Circular Economy Action Plan proposals, published in December 2015; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The European Commission's Circular Economy Action Plan sets out a large number of proposed measures to be delivered between 2015 and 2019 and we are currently considering those in more detail. An Explanatory Memorandum on the Action Plan has been submitted and can be found on the Cabinet Office’s website under European Memoranda:
That document provides further information on the Action Plan and outlines our current views on the policy implications of its proposals.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress has been made in negotiations with the EU on addressing the level of duties imposed on cane sugar imported into Europe; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by George Eustice
During negotiations of the reforms the UK Government argued for a fair and balanced outcome for all parts of the sugar industry. Disappointingly, there was insufficient support from other Member States to secure the necessary changes on imports to allow the cane sector to compete on a level playing field with the beet sector. However, we remain committed to working with the European Commission to address this issue through forthcoming EU trade agreements and other measures as required.
As part of this strategy, Defra Ministers pressed the EU Agriculture Commissioner to prioritise sugar imports as part of the recent EU negotiations with South Africa. Those negotiations have now completed and include enhanced market access for sugar imports which we expect to be available when the trade deal is signed and ratified next year. The UK also supports duty free and quota free (DFQF) imports of sugar from Least Developed Countries (LDC) through the EU’s Everything But Arms scheme and from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries which have signed Economic Partnership Agreements. Continued access to DFQF sugar from Fiji was secured last year through application of their trade deal with the EU. The UK will continue to support ACP and LDC countries to maintain their preferences into the EU market until the sector is fully liberalised.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the prospects of the Government seeking a more advantageous arrangement for cane sugar refiners in its negotiations with the EU.
Answered by George Eustice
During negotiations of the reform of the Common Agriculture Policy last year, which led to the agreement to end sugar beet production quotas in 2017, the UK pushed for the full liberalisation of the sugar regime in order to allow the sugar cane refiners to compete with the beet producers on an equal footing.
Disappointingly, there was insufficient support from other Member States to secure the necessary changes as part of that exercise. However, we remain committed to working with the European Commission to address this issue through forthcoming EU trade agreements.