Industry group Food Drink Ireland (FDI) has supported the call by 35 associations for an early UK-Ireland trade deal to diminish post-Brexit effects.
On 14 March, the British Parliament approved the bill allowing Prime Minister Theresa May to start negotiations for Britain to leave the EU.
Paul Kelly, director of the group, said “with 40% of total food and drink exports going to the UK, Ireland is four to six times more exposed than any other European country to Brexit.
"Supply chains in the food sector are deeply integrated between our two countries and the continued, uninterrupted flow of these supply chains are essential to the competitiveness of food and drink businesses on both islands.”
To 'minimise economic uncertainty and potential damage to the food and drink sector', Kelly suggested negotiators should focus on such things as free access to the UK market, perhaps via a bilateral trade agreement between the EU and the UK.
Tariff and 'barrier-free' trade are important, as well as transitional agreements to span the gap of the possibly two-year Brexit process and the future EU-UK trade deal. These stop-gap deals must avoid tariffs and import quotas, the implementation of new customs procedures. These procedures should be dealt with as the first part of Article 50 negotiations, he said.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Karen Henderson. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
