Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 December 2018
277. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation her views on the recent EU-level agreement (details supplied) by both the European Council and Parliament on the tariff rate quotas that the EU will apply after Brexit in respect of a number of agricultural, fish, industrial and processed agricultural products; and if Ireland supported the position at Council level and or raised issues in this regard. [53655/18]
View answer281. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation her views on the recent EU-level agreement (details supplied) by both European Council and Parliament on the tariff rate quotas that the EU will apply after Brexit in respect of a number of agricultural, fish, industrial and processed agricultural products; and if Ireland supported the position at Council level and or raised issues in this regard. [53654/18]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 277 and 281 together.
On 26 June 2018, the European Council authorised the European Commission to open formal negotiations within the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on how to divide up existing EU Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQs) between the EU-27 Member States and the United Kingdom (UK) in the context of the UK's exiting the European Union. The European Commission leads on these matters as competence on trade issues is vested in the Commission under the Common Commercial Policy of the EU Treaties.
TRQs reflect the maximum quantity of the imports of a given category of goods on which a country member of the WTO - the EU in our case - pledges to charge low import duties rates.
The UK’s withdrawal from the EU has implications beyond the bilateral relationship between the EU and the UK, in particular with regard to their commitments under the Agreement establishing the WTO. When the EU accepted the WTO Agreement and the Multilateral Trade Agreements in 1994, the schedule of concessions and commitments that was Annexed to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 for the European Communities was thereby simultaneously annexed for the UK. As a consequence of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the EU’s existing quantitative commitments, notably the TRQs, require adjustment.
Given the time limits imposed on this process by the negotiations on the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the Union, it is possible that agreements may not be concluded with all WTO Members concerned in relation to all of the Tariff Rate Quotas before Regulation (EC) No 32/2000 (which provides and administers the EU’s TRQs) ceases to apply to the United Kingdom. In view of the need to ensure legal certainty and the continuous smooth operation of imports under the TRQs to the Union and the United Kingdom it is necessary for the EU to be able to proceed unilaterally to the apportionment of the TRQs.
To this end, the European Commission published a proposal for a Regulation - COM (2018) 312 – on 22 May 2018 - which seeks to ensure that in the absence of such agreement, the EU can nevertheless proceed with the apportionment of the TRQs by modifying the WTO tariff concessions and that the Commission is given the necessary powers to consequently amend the relevant EU provisions on the opening and implementation of the relevant TRQs. Following its formal adoption by the European Parliament and the Council, the Regulation will enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. The new TRQs will apply to the UK as and from the day after the UK's withdrawal from the EU. However, the existing TRQ regime (Council Regulation No 32/2000) will apply to the UK during the transition period in the event that the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement is ratified by all parties and enters into force.
The products which have TRQs attached are primarily agricultural and fishery products (including specific beef, swine, sheep, poultry, dairy, fruit, vegetables, wheat, maize, rice and fish products), and a small number of industrial products (including specific wood, silicon, glass, flax and fructose products).
The methodology applied was to first determine the United Kingdom’s usage share for each individual tariff rate quota over a recent representative three year period (2013-2015). This usage is then applied to the entire scheduled tariff rate quota volume, taking into account any under fill, to arrive at the UK's share of a given TRQ. The EU’s share then consists of the remainder of the TRQ in question. This means the total volume of a given tariff rate quota is not changed (that is EU-27 volume = current EU-28 volume minus United Kingdom volume). The full product list including the EU share in quota is contained in the Regulation Annex.
Ireland has actively engaged with the discussions to date on this matter at EU level and has supported the Commission’s approach on the basis that it aims to maintain as close as possible to the status quo regarding the level of market access to the EU-27 after the UK's withdrawal. In this regard, we have prioritised the need to minimise disruption to trade as the UK leaves the EU and the importance of maintaining the existing levels of market access, which is the intention of the European Commission, insofar as the TRQ regime is concerned. Ireland was one of a number of Member States who sought to enhance the consultation requirements for the European Commission with Member States in the apportionment process and we were successful in that regard. This gave us assurances that any unintended consequences of the proposed approach, given the fluidity of the overall Brexit process, would be discussed by Member States at the relevant Committee, in particular, the Trade Policy Committee, where Ireland's representative is an official of my Department. In this process, my Department has liaised closely with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, along with other stakeholders including Revenue Commissioners.
