EU hell-bent on sabotaging UK trade deals in Brexit revenge– Lord lifts lid on bitter plot
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With the ban on chilled meats set to be introduced, Tory peer Lord Daniel Moylan insisted the EU’s stance is unacceptable. Commenting on a threat, Lord Moylan also claimed the stance taken by the EU is an attempt to kill off the UK’s trade deals. The peer said: “A valuable thread showing how far the EU is from political reality.
“The conditions for the movement of sausages (tweets 7 to 10) are totally over the top.
“And their constant pressure for us to return to following EU SPS rules is unreal – and designed to kill off our trade deals.”
Lord Moylan referenced a thread by RTE’s Tony Connelly who explained the issues surrounding chilled meats.
The amnesty runs out at the end of this month which will then introduce checks on chilled meats, such as sausages.
The UK had asked the EU to be pragmatic over the ban and even indicated it may extend the amnesty on chilled meats to avoid issues to trade.
This week, Lord David Frost added that little progress had been made on the ban on chilled meats despite high-level meetings with officials during the G7 summit.
Commenting on the EU’s stance, Mr Connelly said: “There are problems: firstly, the original chilled meats grace period, mutually agreed in December, came with strict conditions attached.
“These included a commitment that chilled meats – sausages, etc – would be clearly labelled as for sale in NI only, that the UK would develop simplified Export Health Certificates stating that such products fully comply with EU legislation that they are ‘submitted to a systematic documentary check and to a risk-based identity check on a selection of items in the means of transport’.
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“And that they are specially monitored when moving from NI ports to designated supermarkets.
“EU sources say these conditions have not been met, which does not encourage member states to agree to a new grace period.
“Secondly, the EU believes that rolling grace periods and derogations go against the spirit of the Protocol and what was agreed by Michael Gove and Maros Sefcovic in December, and that they do not provide stability and certainty for businesses.”
Amid the UK’s threat to unilaterally extend the grace period for goods, the EU has warned it is beginning to lose faith with Britain.
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In response, UK officials have claimed the EU has applied the Northern Ireland protocol in a disproportionate way.
The protocol was designed to stop the creation of a border on the island of Ireland but has left Northern Ireland within the EU’s single market.
This means checks are applied on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland despite the country being within the UK customs territory.
Speaking to MPs on Wednesday, Lord Frost said: “We obviously face difficulty on the chilled meats issue.
“We have asked and suggested to the EU that the right way forward would be to agree to extend the grace period, at least for a bit, to provide a bit of breathing space for the current discussions to continue and try and find solutions.
“I still hold out some hope that they might agree to that because it seems a very narrow point to take such a purist view about.
“We are not having much progress but there is a little bit of time left before that.
“If we can’t agree it we will obviously have to consider all our options. I wouldn’t want to tie us down to anything at this point.”
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