3rd Report - Brexit: Trade in Food

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government welcomes the report and sets out its position recommendation by recommendation, agreeing on the Agriculture Bill, on assessing the impact of any unilateral tariff policies, and on using the talents within Parliament on trade, while saying the tariff and regulatory divergence details depend on the negotiations.

• On the Agriculture Bill, the government "agrees with the Committee" that, once the consultation has been completed and responses analysed, it should publish and introduce the Bill "as soon as possible thereafter".
• On tariff rate quotas, it says it is "not appropriate to set out what a system of unilateral tariff decisions might look like at this stage", given its preference for a Free Trade Agreement with the EU, but agrees it is essential to "fully consider the impact on each and every part of the UK" first.
• On regulatory divergence, it says "Mechanisms for handling regulatory divergence will be discussed as part of the negotiations on that future relationship."
• On country of origin labelling, it says the "UK Government will take on board the Committee's views"; on e-certification for exports, it says it is developing a system and plans to develop and implement the "building blocks" in advance of exit from the EU.

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