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The UK Environment Secretary Michael Gove has made a public commitment that there will be no zero-rate tariffs on agricultural goods post-Brexit.
“The cabinet have been discussing what the tariff regime will be in the event of a no-deal situation. I can’t pre-empt the announcement that should be made later this week,” Gove said at a National Farmers' Union (NFU) conference in Birmingham on 19 February.
“One thing that I can reassure you is that it will not be the case that we will have zero-rate tariffs on food products that will need protections for sensitive sections of agriculture and food production. Beyond that I can’t say at the moment.”
Gove said that he felt he had support across Cabinet for agriculture.
Zero tariff
Avoiding a zero tariff situation means that the UK government can set the tariff rate at whatever it wants, but that rate would be available to all countries – not just Ireland.
If, for sake of argument, a simple monetary value of 10% was decided on - that would immediately make Irish beef 10% more expensive in the UK but also open the door to Brazil and Argentina as 10% on top of their prices would make them extremely competitive given their starting point.
The UK's Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs George Eustice previously said that the UK imported a large volume of beef from Ireland and that in the event of a no-deal scenario the UK would probably revert to a most-favoured nation (MFN) tariff.
Tariff rates post-Brexit
Gove stressed that he wanted to avoid a no-deal situation and was confident that a deal would be struck before 29 March.
However, he added that he expected an announcement to be made later this week on what no-deal tariff rates would be in a no-deal scenario.
“The tariffs that will be announced in the event of a no deal are not our preferred policy,” Gove told farmers at the conference.
“The tariffs that we would have in the event of a no-deal are only planned to be temporary.”
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