Renewed call by MP for seed potatoes export deal
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Gordon MP Richard Thomson has again called on the UK Government to get a deal in place that would see the resumption of exports of Scottish seed potatoes to the EU and Northern Ireland.
The MP was speaking during a debate in the House of Commons on the Northern Ireland Protocol where the movement of goods was being discussed.
Currently, as well as losing access to the valuable EU export market, Scottish seed potatoes are unable to be exported to Northern Ireland as a result of the UK’s Brexit deal.
Speaking during the debate, Mr Thomson said: “I have certainly been doing my bit, in every forum to which I have had access, to make the case for putting a sanitary and phytosanitary deal in place.
"Not only would that solve many of the problems inherent in the protocol, but it would make things so much better for my constituents in the north-east of Scotland, the seed potato growers and those who are involved in the food and drink industry more generally.
“It seems such a pragmatic thing to do that it beggars belief that we have come so far down the road of the Government saying that they wish to negotiate without anything like it being concluded.
"It seems to me that Ministers would be knocking on an open door if they went to Brussels with it.”
