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 of lowering import tariffs on agricultural products on the domestic food and drink industry in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
In the event the UK leaves the EU without a deal, there would be a number of tools available to help mitigate adverse impacts for the food and drink industry, as well as for consumers and producers. These tools could include lowering applied tariffs on certain goods, alongside tariff rate suspensions and opening up autonomous tariff rate quotas.
Different combinations of these tools would have different impacts on the food and drink industry, as would different degrees of tariff reduction. In addition, the competitiveness of the domestic industry is heavily affected by a number of other factors, including commodity prices, exchange rates and oil prices. These drivers will continue to apply when we leave the EU, regardless of tariff rates.