Whiskey makers in Seanad plea over free trade tariffs

The Irish Whiskey Association has teamed up with Dairy Industry Ireland and the Dairy Council for Northern Ireland to make their case over problems accessing the benefits of EU free trade agreements following the UK’s departure from the EU.

In a joint presentation to the Seanad Brexit Committee, they stated that Since 1 January 2021, a range of Irish whiskey and Irish dairy products produced in Ireland have lost their EU originating status under all EU trade agreements with markets around the world.

The trade groups said this was due to the rules of origin stated in the FTAs as they do not currently recognise inputs or processing from outside of the EU, despite the free movement of goods within the EU under the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol.

Irish Whiskey Association chief William Lavelle told senators: “Irish whiskey containing Northern Irish inputs or processing have now lost access to zero or reduced tariff provided for EU free trade agreements with a range of markets including South Africa, Switzerland, Serbia, South Korea, Colombia, Vietnam and Botswana.

“As an example, the tariff facing Irish whiskeys deemed to be of EU origin in South Africa is zero while the tariff facing Irish whiskey which have lost their EU originating status is 154 cent a litre. In South Korea, it is zero compared to 20 per cent.”

The EU trade agreement impacts Irish whiskey primarily produced in the Republic but containing some inputs from NI – mainly Irish whiskey blended in the south with one of the component parts of the blend being an NI-distilled whiskey.

It also affects Irish whiskey distilled in NI but matured in the Republic, and in some cases, Irish whiskey produced in the Republic but bottled in NI.

The trade bodies had asked the European Commission to consider new rules of origin in all future trade agreements but had received “disappointing” replies.

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