Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect on the import of animal feeds of the UK's withdrawal from the EU.

We will continue to keep Parliament informed with appropriate analysis at appropriate times in a way that does not impede our ability to strike the best deal for the UK. The Government intends to achieve a free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU and the aim is for a zero tariff and zero quota FTA which we are working hard to achieve.

At the end of 2020 the UK will transition to Most Favoured Nation (MFN) terms with all those nations that it does not have a free trade agreement with. The MFN principle means that the same tariff must be applied to all WTO trading partners, unless an exception applies such as an FTA. The Government will publish more detail of the economic analysis in the Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) alongside the legislation, as is standard practice to support tax policy decisions.

Ensuring that UK food and feed remains safe and what it says it is remains a top priority. We are committed to having in place a robust and effective regulatory regime which will mean businesses can continue to run as normal and therefore there are no changes in terms of imports of animal feed to the UK. The majority of feed imported into the UK will not be subject to import checks and this will continue to be the case at the end of the Transition Period. The UK will retain EU legislation that is applicable at the end of the Transition Period to ensure feed is safe, and our high standards of food and feed safety and consumer protection will be maintained.