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The transcript of a recent parliamentary Brexit meeting has been released, and it features the hitherto unknown linkages between the importation of shrimps and bicycles.
Appearing before the Exiting the European Committee the European Commission’s Sabine Weyand was asked for a solution to the Irish border conundrum by Tory Brexiter MP Andrea Jenkins.
"Imagine an import of shrimps from an Asian country where they treat shrimps with antibiotics, which are prohibited in the EU because they can lead to blindness," started Weyand, who is second-in-command to Michel Barnier.
"Now this shipment arrives in Liverpool and is destined for the market in Northern Ireland and also the EU27. At what moment and how do we check that there are no residues of prohibited antibiotics? A 20km zone does not address this issue."
She then introduced the complications arising from anti-dumping measures on Chinese bicycles.
"The second example is bicycles imported from China on which the EU levies anti-dumping duties," she explained.
"Maybe the UK in the future decides not to have such anti-dumping duties because you want to have your own system on this? So how can we ensure that bicycles, arriving in Liverpool again or somewhere else, do not end up undermining the anti-dumping duties that the EU is levying? How can we avoid that this becomes an entry point into the single market? Again, WTO rules on exemptions, of 20 km, do not address this issue."
