MIV warns about Brexit
Eckard Heuser
A possible “hard Brexit” would cause enormous damage to the European dairy industry, according to the Dairy Industry Association (MIV) in Germany. Following the vote earlier in this month in the British House of Commons rejecting the separation agreement between the United Kingdom (UK) and the EU27, there is great uncertainty about what to do next.
“I expect the greatest possible tolerance and willingness to resolve in all other short-term talks between the EU and the United Kingdom to mitigate the damage from the Brexit process,” says Eckhard Heuser, chief executive of the MIV.
There is a lot at stake for the Germans: the UK is a large net importer of milk and dairy products, especially in the Republic of Ireland.
If, in a hard Brexit, the UK levies third-country duties on EU goods, product prices would have to be raised significantly. Trade threatens to come to a standstill, they believe in the MIV.
The fear of the German association is that the administrative part of the process is not only threatened by high third-country tariffs, but also accompanied by the need for customs controls with a high expenditures of time at the border. To this end, the two ex-partners EU and UK would initially treat each other as third countries in the exchange of goods and services and therefore also introduce veterinary controls again.
