To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs for his assessment of the UK’s new free trade deal with Australia and its potential impact on farming in Northern Ireland.

The UK Government came to an agreement in principle with Australia on a free trade agreement on 15 June. While there will be aspects of the agreement that will benefit Northern Ireland exporters, I am concerned that they do not provide adequate protection for UK agricultural producers. I am particularly concerned about the size of the tariff rate quotas which have been agreed for beef and sheep products as these quotas are too large to offer protection to domestic producers and after 15 years there will be no quotas at all. On the issue of standards, the UK Government maintains that all imports with have to meet UK SPS requirements and beef produced using hormones as growth promoters will not be permitted to enter into the UK. That aspect of the agreement is welcome and will be scrutinised by the Trade and Agriculture Commission prior to Parliamentary approval.

I have long maintained that tariff and quota protection must be retained for sensitive agricultural products and have emphasised the importance of this to UK Government Ministers. I have written to Defra Secretary of State George Eustice to express my strong opposition to the prospect of a zero tariff, zero quota Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the UK and Australia. I have also met with, and subsequently wrote to the Minister of State for Trade Policy, Greg Hands MP to outline my concerns. I will continue to pursue these matters with the Government.