Thread by @Jim_Cornelius

Dear @DCBMEP your BrexitCentral article says that there’s a 60% tariff on shoes from Vietnam. There isn’t. Your other figures need fact checking too. Why do you have tell porkie pies?

I've just worked my way through every one of the 92 sub-headings that come under HS code 64 (Footwear - trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/trade-tariff/c…) for Vietnam (which is on GSP).

22 items are 0%
3 are on 1.5%
1 s on 3.5%
40 are on 4.5%
26 are on 11.9%

An average of 5.41% across the whole chapter.

This is the article in question.

brexitcentral.com/dont-dishearte…

I just did another fact-check on it regarding the claim about about New Zealand Lamb. Would you be surprised to find out that it's not true?

Lamb is imported under quota.

This page for New Zealand lamb HS 0204300010 (Carcasses and half-Carcasses of lamb, frozen, Of domestic lamb) shows two quotas. Order: 092016, any 3rd country, and specific for New Zealand order 092013.

Within both quotas lamb is imported at 0%.

Here are the tariff quotas for New Zealand for this year. Only the top three (09013, 092109, 09211) need concern us as 092202 is for beef. ec.europa.eu/taxation_custo…

If you open up the top quota (09013) you can see which HS codes it applies to and how much has been used. The balance is the amount yet to be used up.

What percentage is left for this year? 166720541.93/228254000= 73%

Only 27% used up so far this year.

ec.europa.eu/taxation_custo…

This is a graph produced by the New Zealand Meat Board It shows that for the last few years, at least NZ have not been hitting 100% of their quota allocation for sheepmeat exports to the EU.

ec.europa.eu/agriculture/si…

In summary: It is completely false to claim that there is a 50% tariff on New Zealand lamb. Around 225 thousand tons of it enters the EU at 0% tariff under a quota for New Zealand and that allocation is rarely fully utilised. No lamb in the shops from NZ incurred any tariff.

By the way an FTA between the EU and Vietnam has been in the very final stages of negotiation for a while

There's some fine details to sort out regarding who has competence (EU or member states) for some stuff. Once signed tariffs will be 0% for Vietnam.

europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes…

Bananas

All Bananas from ACP countries on EBA or EPA are on a 0% tariff.

For the Caribbean that's:

Antigua & Barbuda,Barbados,Bahamas ,Belize ,Dominica ,Dominican Rep,Grenada ,Guyana ,Jamaica,St Kitts &Nevis ,St Lucia ,Suriname ,Trinidad & Tobago,St Vincent & the Grenadines.

In Africa that includes the major Banana producing nations of Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Cameroon.

All bananas from these countries come in tariff and quota free.

This table shows the main ACP suppliers.

ec.europa.eu/agriculture/si…

But a larger supply comes from Latina American countries.

There's a tariff on these.

ec.europa.eu/agriculture/si…

Production of bananas in these countries is dominated by three American-based multinationals. Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita.

in 2008 these companies were fined over €60m by the EU for operating a cartel, but that's beside the point, back to tariffs.

Here's the tariff for bananas.

Standard rate for 3rd countries is €117/tonne, for the big suppliers though as follows (per tonne):

Ecuador: €90
Columbia: €89
Costa Rica: €89
Panama: €89
Peru: €89
Guatemala: €89
Mexico: €70

trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/trade-tariff/c…

Here I hit a stumbling block. Trying to find out what the landing price is (it fluctuates obviously). If a tariff of €90/tonne represents 20% that means the landing price would have to be €450/tonne or €0.45 per kilo.