• Contact
  • About
  • Authors
DONATE
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
  • Login
Yorkshire Bylines
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Brexit
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Home Affairs
    • Transport
    • World
    Emmanuel Macron

    French parliamentary elections 2022: shockwaves across the Channel

    Rail strikes

    Millions affected by biggest rail strike action in 30 years

    cost of living march london

    Trade union movement marches to demand better

    European Union

    After the seismic shocks of Brexit and Covid, what next for the European Union?

    Eurovision 2022 stage - photo by Michael Doherty on Wikimedia Commons licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0

    What does Ukraine’s Eurovision win tell us about the politics of solidarity?

    Refugee Week

    Refugee week: a chance to celebrate refugees

    Yorkshire cows

    British farmers are being offered a lump sum payment to leave the industry – but at what cost to agriculture?

    Julian Assange

    Julian Assange’s extradition given the green light by the UK home secretary

    RSPB heritage event

    RSPB heritage event to tell the story of the Dearne Valley, from coal face to wild place

    Trending Tags

    • Johnson
    • Coronavirus
    • Labour
    • Starmer
    • NI Protocol
    • Brexit
    • Culture
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Home Affairs
    • Transport
    • World
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Culture
    • Dance
    • Food
    • Music
    • Poetry
    • Recipes
    • Sport
    Headingley Cricket Stadium

    A view from the Roses match: is everything ‘rosey’ in English cricket?

    Bettys' Fat Rascals

    Scallywags, scoundrels and rascals abound in Yorkshire (we do like our scones)

    'Woke' beliefs

    Woke and proud: Compassion must never be allowed to go out of fashion

    Eurovision 2022 stage - photo by Michael Doherty on Wikimedia Commons licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0

    What does Ukraine’s Eurovision win tell us about the politics of solidarity?

    Red Ladder

    Climbing the Red Ladder – bringing theatre to the community

    Kaiser Chiefs in Doncaster

    Kaiser Chiefs never miss a beat in Doncaster

    Bradford Council leader Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, second from right, is joined by Keighley Creative representatives, from left, Georgina Webster, Jan Smithies and Gemma Hobbs.

    Bradford announced as City of Culture 2025

    Queen cakes fit for a Queen

    Queen Cakes fit for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

    Opera North's artist in residence Jasdeep Singh Degun

    Jasdeep Singh Degun announced as Opera North’s artist in residence

    • Food
    • Music
    • Poetry
    • Sport
  • Business
    • All
    • Economy
    • Technology
    • Trade
    Freya Osment from Northern Gas Networks

    International Women in Engineering Day 2022

    Rail strikes

    Millions affected by biggest rail strike action in 30 years

    conservative party

    The Conservative Party: fiscally irresponsible and ideologically incapable of addressing the current crises

    Yorkshire cows

    British farmers are being offered a lump sum payment to leave the industry – but at what cost to agriculture?

    cost-of-living-crisis-in-voluntary-sector

    Cost-of-living crisis looming for the voluntary sector

    Money on the floor - £20 notes

    The huge cost of Brexit is being seriously understated

    Financial problems

    Surge in bad debt and late payments indicate mounting business distress in Yorkshire

    An evening photo tour of Drax power station near Selby, North Yorkshire, with excellent light towards sunset.

    Winter blackouts and rationing for six million homes as government plans for disruption to energy supply

    Jar with money cascading out of it

    Boosterism doesn’t put food on the table

    Trending Tags

      • Economy
      • Technology
      • Trade
    • Region
    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • News
      • All
      • Brexit
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Health
      • Home Affairs
      • Transport
      • World
      Emmanuel Macron

      French parliamentary elections 2022: shockwaves across the Channel

      Rail strikes

      Millions affected by biggest rail strike action in 30 years

      cost of living march london

      Trade union movement marches to demand better

      European Union

      After the seismic shocks of Brexit and Covid, what next for the European Union?

      Eurovision 2022 stage - photo by Michael Doherty on Wikimedia Commons licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0

      What does Ukraine’s Eurovision win tell us about the politics of solidarity?

      Refugee Week

      Refugee week: a chance to celebrate refugees

      Yorkshire cows

      British farmers are being offered a lump sum payment to leave the industry – but at what cost to agriculture?

      Julian Assange

      Julian Assange’s extradition given the green light by the UK home secretary

      RSPB heritage event

      RSPB heritage event to tell the story of the Dearne Valley, from coal face to wild place

      Trending Tags

      • Johnson
      • Coronavirus
      • Labour
      • Starmer
      • NI Protocol
      • Brexit
      • Culture
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Home Affairs
      • Transport
      • World
    • Politics
    • Opinion
    • Lifestyle
      • All
      • Culture
      • Dance
      • Food
      • Music
      • Poetry
      • Recipes
      • Sport
      Headingley Cricket Stadium

      A view from the Roses match: is everything ‘rosey’ in English cricket?

      Bettys' Fat Rascals

      Scallywags, scoundrels and rascals abound in Yorkshire (we do like our scones)

      'Woke' beliefs

      Woke and proud: Compassion must never be allowed to go out of fashion

      Eurovision 2022 stage - photo by Michael Doherty on Wikimedia Commons licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0

      What does Ukraine’s Eurovision win tell us about the politics of solidarity?

      Red Ladder

      Climbing the Red Ladder – bringing theatre to the community

      Kaiser Chiefs in Doncaster

      Kaiser Chiefs never miss a beat in Doncaster

      Bradford Council leader Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, second from right, is joined by Keighley Creative representatives, from left, Georgina Webster, Jan Smithies and Gemma Hobbs.

      Bradford announced as City of Culture 2025

      Queen cakes fit for a Queen

      Queen Cakes fit for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

      Opera North's artist in residence Jasdeep Singh Degun

      Jasdeep Singh Degun announced as Opera North’s artist in residence

      • Food
      • Music
      • Poetry
      • Sport
    • Business
      • All
      • Economy
      • Technology
      • Trade
      Freya Osment from Northern Gas Networks

      International Women in Engineering Day 2022

      Rail strikes

      Millions affected by biggest rail strike action in 30 years

      conservative party

      The Conservative Party: fiscally irresponsible and ideologically incapable of addressing the current crises

      Yorkshire cows

      British farmers are being offered a lump sum payment to leave the industry – but at what cost to agriculture?

      cost-of-living-crisis-in-voluntary-sector

      Cost-of-living crisis looming for the voluntary sector

      Money on the floor - £20 notes

      The huge cost of Brexit is being seriously understated

      Financial problems

      Surge in bad debt and late payments indicate mounting business distress in Yorkshire

      An evening photo tour of Drax power station near Selby, North Yorkshire, with excellent light towards sunset.

      Winter blackouts and rationing for six million homes as government plans for disruption to energy supply

      Jar with money cascading out of it

      Boosterism doesn’t put food on the table

      Trending Tags

        • Economy
        • Technology
        • Trade
      • Region
      No Result
      View All Result
      Yorkshire Bylines
      No Result
      View All Result
      Home News Brexit

      Is York’s chocolate industry under threat from Brexit?

      The Food and Drink Federation is the latest to come up with a have-cake-and-eat-it plan, this time on rules of origin.

      Anthony RobinsonbyAnthony Robinson
      20-06-2020 11:20
      in Brexit
      York’s Chocolate Story, York Nilfanion / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

      York’s Chocolate Story, York Nilfanion / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

      3
      VIEWS
      Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
      ADVERTISEMENT

      The Food and Drink Federation is the latest to come up with a have-cake-and-eat-it plan, this time on rules of origin. They want the EU to change things for this former member, in order to help maintain trade so that British and EU customers can enjoy the same choice and quality as before, as if nothing has happened. We can pretend all that nasty business about – what was it, Brexit or something? – has been forgotten. 

      Experts say it’s a good proposal, but bound to fail. It may also have serious consequences for Yorkshire’s chocolate industry depending on where they source their raw materials.

      The Food and Drink Federation have written a joint letter from various UK and EU (mainly UK) food and drink trade associations to the EU and UK chief negotiators, Michel Barnier and David Frost, essentially asking for special treatment “to ensure highly integrated European supply chains can continue to operate.” This must have caused a bit of eye-rolling in Brussels.

      It is a valiant attempt to protect the people who voted for Brexit from its consequences, but it seems doomed to fail.

      Rules of origin

      For anyone who doesn’t know what rules of origin (RoO) are let me try and explain, but bear with me – I’m not an expert.

      To enjoy tariff-free trade under a free trade agreement (FTA) the goods have to wholly originate in the territory of one of the two parties to the deal, or have a certain minimum local content. The amount of local content will vary according to the product and the FTA. This is to avoid one country sourcing stuff cheaply from other third countries and passing it off as their own to get an advantage.

      During import, declarations of origin are attached to the documentation of any consignment seeking preferential tariff treatment and detailed evidence of origin may be demanded.

      The EU has two methods of determining the origin of products – one, the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean (PEM) protocol is the most widely used and agreed between EU28, the European Free Trade Area (EFTA), Turkey and a number of states around the Mediterranean basin. The other is CETA – the Canadian FTA, which is almost the same as PEM but modified slightly to take account of Canada’s unique needs.

      Apparently neither is any good for the UK after Brexit, according to the Food and Drink Federation.

      Let me also say here the rules are mind-numbingly complex because the allowable local content amounts and the method of calculating them varies from product to product.

      A report from 2018 sets out the problem

      A 2018 report from the Food and Drink Federation gives an actual, if simple, example of a loaf of wholemeal bread. This loaf is made up of wholemeal flour (30 per cent), wheat flour (20 per cent) water (40 per cent) and yeast, salt, etc (10 per cent). The flour is milled in the UK either from locally grown wheat or wheat shipped from the US or Canada (tariff paid) depending on global price and harvest quality.

      Once made it can be shipped anywhere in the EU – at the moment.



      After Brexit under the PEM rules “the use of UK-milled flour from a blend of grains including any quantity of wheat grown outside the UK would automatically disqualify the bread loaf from preferential import tariff treatment into the EU single market.” [Our emphasis]

      So that’s no good – our bakers can’t ship bread if the wheat is non-British.

      What about CETA? This is no good either, because it only permits 20 per cent of non-British wheat and if you blend any Canadian or US wheat – as we must at some times of the year, if not most of the year – the loaf does not qualify.

      The threat to York’s chocolate industry

      The report gives another real example of a milk chocolate bar, which could have huge implications for York and its chocolate industry where similar problems arise with non-local content. Page 16 of the report explains that, “Neither the PEM nor a CETA-type origin framework’s sufficient transformation requirements are fully accommodative to supply chains using UK-refined sugarcane from non-EU originating brown sugar.”

      And problems with a CETA-style system for dairy content means UK-made milk chocolate bars could fail to meet EU rules of origin requirements for avoiding tariffs of up to 35.4 per cent on imports of dairy products into the EU single market.

      The same issues of origin determination would also be relevant when the bar was exported to markets outside Europe such as Canada under a future UK-Canada FTA that replicated the CETA arrangements. “Unless such an arrangement included diagonal cumulation provisions for the EU, a UK-made chocolate bar using EU content would risk failing to be eligible for preferential tariff treatment.”

      Diagonal cumulation means assuming content from other countries with which we have agreed free trade deals is regarded as ‘local’ content.

      So, the Food and Drink Federation are asking for various changes, including diagonal cumulation. Another one is calculating the percentage of local content by value not weight which the report coyly says is needed to reflect “the price premium they secure through higher quality, established brands and technological input in their products” – otherwise known as higher profits.

      After December, without a trade deal, goods exported into the EU from the UK will be subject to the full range of EU tariffs. If we agree a deal some goods will go tariff free – but only provided they meet the criteria of wholly originating in the UK or having the right amount of local content.

      Nestle warned last year about “major challenges” for the British food and drink industry and a spokesperson at the time said there was “real concern” at the company and across the sector over the consequences of Britain leaving without a deal. But the specific issue of rules of origin under a free trade agreement was not addressed.

      What do the experts say?

      Dr Anna Jerzewska of the UK Trade Policy Observatory and a consultant to the UN and the British Chambers of Commerce says on Twitter:

      It’s been an interesting week for #rulesoforigin with the @Foodanddrinkfed and @nabim_flour proposal coming out.

      Here is a longish ?on the proposal and on origin in general

      /1 https://t.co/p5QykbUwnx

      — Dr Anna Jerzewska (@AnnaJerzewska) June 19, 2020

      She describes the Food and Drink Federation proposals as a “brilliant piece of work” and “well thought through”, adding that to say it’s ambitious is an understatement. It apparently makes what the UK has demanded so far look “basic” and is an attempt, she claims, to alleviate the impact on the food and drink sector of leaving the single market and the customs union. 

      But she goes on to question why the EU would ever agree to it.

      It is the “embodiment of having your cake and eating it” she says, adding that Barnier was not happy about the UK’s much less ambitious original idea.

      She cannot imagine the EU agreeing to the majority of the provisions so it appears to be a non-starter anyway.

      What it does reveal is the complexity of Brexit and the minefield of international trade negotiations that Britain is ill-equipped to enter.

      ADVERTISEMENT
      Previous Post

      The politics of knowledge: 21st century poverty

      Next Post

      A grand night out … or not

      Anthony Robinson

      Anthony Robinson

      Anthony is a retired sales engineer, living in North Yorkshire. He has represented several European manufacturers of packaging machinery in the UK. Anthony is interested in politics, although not as an active member of any party, and enjoys reading, gardening and DIY.

      Related Posts

      Money on the floor - £20 notes
      Brexit

      The huge cost of Brexit is being seriously understated

      byAnthony Robinson
      13 June 2022
      Imperial Measurements
      Brexit

      Inching ever backwards: the proposed return to imperial measurements

      byPaul Bright
      10 June 2022
      Sheep
      Brexit

      I’m a sheep and cattle farmer in Yorkshire – Brexit has left farmers in fear for their futures

      byPeter Gittins
      9 June 2022
      Jacob Rees-Mogg, cartoon by Stan
      Brexit

      Brexit benefits: From Honduras to Hull, via Hong Kong

      byAnn Moody
      9 June 2022
      Boris Johnson reading the Sue Gray report
      Brexit

      Johnson heads for certain defeat in final showdown over the Northern Ireland protocol

      byAnthony Robinson
      8 June 2022
      Next Post
      The author enjoying a grand night out …

      A grand night out … or not

      Want to support us?

      Can you help Yorkshire Bylines to grow and become more sustainable with a regular donation, no matter how small?  

      DONATE

      Sign up to our newsletter

      If you would like to receive the Yorkshire Bylines regular newsletter, straight talking direct to your inbox, click the button below.

      NEWSLETTER

      LATEST

      Emmanuel Macron

      French parliamentary elections 2022: shockwaves across the Channel

      25 June 2022
      March for women

      Women of Wakefield: people power only works if the people use that power

      24 June 2022
      Headingley Cricket Stadium

      A view from the Roses match: is everything ‘rosey’ in English cricket?

      24 June 2022
      Freya Osment from Northern Gas Networks

      International Women in Engineering Day 2022

      23 June 2022

      MOST READ

      Photo credit Robert Sharp / englishpenLicensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

      The Davis Downside Dossier

      1 January 2021
      Vladimir Putin

      Conservative Friends of Russia group disbands with immediate effect

      8 March 2022
      European Union

      After the seismic shocks of Brexit and Covid, what next for the European Union?

      21 June 2022
      March for women

      Women of Wakefield: people power only works if the people use that power

      24 June 2022

      BROWSE BY TAGS

      antivaxxers Charity climate change Coronavirus Cost of living Creative industries Crime Cummings Democracy Devolution education Equality Farming Fishing hgv History Immigration Johnson Journalism Labour Local Democracy Mental Health mining money NHS NI Protocol omicron Pies pollution poverty PPE Public Health Review shortage social media Starmer tax travel Ukraine Yorkshire
      Yorkshire Bylines

      Yorkshire Bylines is a regional online newspaper that supports citizen journalism. Our aim is to publish well-written, fact-based articles and opinion pieces on subjects that are of interest to people in Yorkshire and beyond.

      Learn more about us

      No Result
      View All Result
      • Contact
      • About
      • Letters
      • Donate
      • Privacy
      • Bylines network
      • Shop

      © 2022 Yorkshire Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

      No Result
      View All Result
      • Home
      • News
        • Brexit
        • Education
        • Environment
        • Health
        • Home Affairs
        • Transport
        • World
      • Politics
      • Opinion
      • Lifestyle
        • Culture
        • Dance
        • Food
        • Music
        • Poetry
        • Recipes
        • Sport
      • Business
        • Economy
        • Technology
        • Trade
      • Donate
      • The Compendium of Cabinet Codebreakers
      • The Davis Downside Dossier
      • The Digby Jones Index
      • Newsletter sign up
      • Cartoons by Stan
      • Authors

      © 2022 Yorkshire Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

      Welcome Back!

      Login to your account below

      Forgotten Password?

      Retrieve your password

      Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

      Log In