Marketing

Whiskey and dairy industries call on State to pressure EU


Representatives of the whiskey and dairy industries have called on the Government to pressure the European Union to recognise Irish products that contain some level of input from Northern Ireland as having EU origin status.

When the Brexit transition period ended at the start of the year and the UK officially left the EU, a range of goods deemed to be produced in the Republic lost their EU originating status and – as a result – their access to lower or zero preferential trade tariffs with some markets.

In addition, mixed origin dairy products, manufactured in the Republic, no longer have access to EU market support measures.

The goods impacted by this include some Irish whiskey and dairy products. What the impacted goods have in common is that they are produced primarily in this State but contain some level of inputs or processing in the North.

These products lost their EU originating status under all EU trade agreements with markets around the world as a result of that fact that the rules-of-origin in these EU free trade agreements do not recognise inputs or processing from outside of the European Union.

At a hearing of the Seanad Special Select Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union on Monday, William Lavelle, head of Drinks Ireland, Irish Whiskey Association, said a range of markets were affected.

“Irish whiskey containing Northern Irish inputs or processing have now lost access to zero or reduced tariff provided for EU free trade agreements with a range of markets including South Africa, Switzerland, Serbia, South Korea, Colombia, Vietnam and Botswana,” he said.

“As an example, the tariff facing Irish whiskeys deemed to be of EU origin in South Africa is zero while the tariff facing Irish whiskey which have lost their EU originating status is 154 cents/litre. In South Korea, it is zero compared to 20 per cent.”

Conor Mulvihill, director, Dairy Industry Ireland, said it was “vital” that a solution is found to allow Irish dairy product from the “integrated all island dairy supply chain” to gain access to existing and future EU free trade agreements.

“This is an unfair and anomalous situation since milk and products produced in Northern Ireland must adhere to EU standards, with free movement being facilitated under the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol,” he said.

“The failure to designate these mixed origin dairy products manufactured in Ireland as EU is causing difficulties.”

He said segregation of milk “has never been needed and would be extremely difficult for dairy and specialised nutrition companies to achieve”.

He added that the matter was “further complicated” by the fact that there is insufficient processing capacity in Northern Ireland to handle all the milk produced.

The representatives, who were joined Dairy Council for Northern Ireland chief Executive Dr Mike Johnston, said they had no wish for the EU to renegotiate trade agreements, but to instead consider new rules of origin, which protect cross-border supply chains on the island.

“We are calling on the Irish Government to continue to champion the need to reform rules-of-origin and territoriality rules in international trade to protect and facilitate cross-border supply chains on the island of Ireland,” they said.



READ SOURCE

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.