Some factories are considering moving their processing facilities to the UK, according to Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny.
Speaking yesterday, Tuesday, April 9, during a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine on the future of the Irish beef sector, the TD voiced concerns regarding the consequences of a hard Brexit.
“We won’t be out of the British market; we’ll simply have huge tariffs imposed on us because of it. And if those tariffs are imposed, how are we going to get round it?
The beef processors, there’s some of them I understand are actually thinking of moving their processing across to England and just bringing the cattle across there.
“At the moment, most of the employees they have in a lot of the factories are transient. They’re foreign labour that were brought in at very, very low prices; low cost labour – that’s the way it’s gone,” the Sinn Féin agriculture spokesperson said.
UK cleared for animal trade
This was followed by the news today that the UK’s listed status application has been agreed by EU member states after it met the animal health and biosecurity assurances required for a third country to export live animals and animal products.
The EU’s Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed confirmed the acceptance of the UK’s listed status application yesterday.
National listed status is the EU’s classification for non-member states and the UK’s application, submitted in November 2018, has passed the high criteria on biosecurity measures for animal health and food hygiene, according to the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
With listed status now confirmed, UK exporters will need to follow the EU rules for exports from third countries to the EU.