Commission, worked tirelessly to secure a positive outcome. EDA welcomed
the agreement on the terms of the future cooperation reached
by the European Union and the United Kingdom. Continued exchanges
with key MEPs during the last days of the transition period were crucial.
On December 30, we organized a high-level dairy call to analyse
the UK-EU Agreement and we shared our first assessment of
the EU-UK Trade & Cooperation Agreement (TCA) with the European
and UK authorities.
The agreed EU–UK dairy relationship provides a rather solid basis for
the continuation of our integrated lactosphère. EDA is also grateful for
the consideration of the dairy industry’s concerns and proposals that reflected
in the TCA. Parts of our joint DairyUK-EDA proposals have been
copied by the negotiation partners into the Agreement.
Nevertheless, we will face logistical and administrative obstacles under
the new trading regime. The former German EU Presidency stated
on 28 December 2020 that despite the in-principle ‘no tariffs, no quota’
approach, additional costs of close to €300 million per annum will impact
the EU27 dairy sector under the agreement. The Republic of Ireland will
be the most exposed to these extra costs. The threat of a significant decrease
of dairy exports from the EU27 to the UK was underlined, which is
likely to create turmoil on the European and global milk markets.
One of the asks in our 30 December 2020 letter, to assure a continuation
of the UK Task Force of the EU Commission in order to have a single
and direct contact point for all EU-UK dairy issues that may raise within
the implementation process, was echoed in the meantime. This will help
to pursue the frictionless dairy trade flows and uncork the full potential
of the agreement for the benefit of citizens and the dairy sectors in the
UK and in the EU. The European dairy sector counts on the preparedness
of the EU Commission services to take appropriate and timely measures
in case of market distortions. The Trade & Cooperation Agreement is
very much welcomed but there is no room for complacency.
Since the EU and the UK found an agreement, concerns and issues
regarding the well-functioning of the supply chain are being raised by all
European and UK exporters. The current rules of origin lead to significant
tariffs when European consignments are split in the UK hub before parts
are being re-exported to the Republic of Ireland. On sanitary matters, the
new rules for importing animal products into the UK are rather unclear.
Indeed, in principle, products of animal origin must be, from the 1st of
April, accompanied by a health certificate so they can have remote documentary
checks. A number of operators are yet already confronted with
request for health certificate by the UK importers, which is contrary to
the new rules. The EU dairy sector is expecting an increasing number of
logistical and administrative problems in the coming weeks and months,
especially if additional certification requirements become necessary. The
implementation phase, meant to end on the 1st of April 2021, must be
used to agree to the application of the principle of equivalence.
On the basis of a shared common market history of 47 years, we
asked the partners to reconsider the real need of new health certificates
in the trade between the UK and the EU.
The EU-UK relationship post-Brexit still seems to be more shaped
by a politicised debate than by a pragmatic approach. The latest turbulences
show that the political sphere has not drawn the lessons to
be learnt by the Brexit process.
EU-UK Cooperation and Trade Agreement – a new start? For the
time being at least, this new start seems not the end of the political
manoeuvres and is hence not yet up to the needs of the UK and EU
dairy industry…
News ¦ IDM
SIGNATURE
More than 150m packages sold
SIG has sold over 150 million packs with its award-winning
SIGNATURE, the world’s first aseptic carton packaging
material linked up to 100% to renewable materials. Alina
Theissen Hageresch, SIGMarketing Manager Sustainability
and Responsibility Europe: “Increased uptake shows
that its strong environmental credentials offer customers
an answer to consumers wanting more sustainable packaging
alternatives as they seek to do their part for a lowcarbon
future.” sig.biz
SIG has now sold over
150 million packs with
its award-winning SIGNATURE,
the world’s first
aseptic carton packaging
material linked up to 100%
to renewable materials
(photo: SIG)
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