• Chocolate, gin, buses and clothes are among British products that could see tariffs of up to 10% removed, encouraging New Zealand to buy British.
• High quality New Zealand products such as wine, food and drink could be tariff-free in UK shops.
• Total trade in goods and services between the UK and New Zealand was worth £2.3 billion last year and is set to increase with a trade deal

A trade deal with New Zealand could give British shoppers and exporters reason to cheer as both countries ditch tariffs as high as 10% on a range of high-quality products. The latest round of trade talks between both sides ended last month with good progress made towards a final deal.

Under a new deal, a multitude of UK goods would no longer be subject to import tariffs when entering the New Zealand market, and exporters would gain an advantage over international rivals in the New Zealand import market, which is expected to grow by 30% by 2030.

• Iconic British exports such as Beefeater gin and Belvoir soft drinks currently face a tariff of 5% when entering New Zealand, as do products from chocolate to cheese and crisps.
• The UK’s world-famous fashion industry sold £30m-worth of clothes to New Zealand last year, and businesses like Tee-Time Clothing could now benefit when tariffs of 10% on clothing are lifted.
• Cars are the UK’s biggest export to New Zealand, with £133 million-worth sold last year. Buses, motorhomes and caravans are in line to also see tariffs up to 10% removed entirely.

Much-loved New Zealand wine, including Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, which currently face tariffs of up to 20p per bottle would also be expected to have these tariffs slashed as part of a trade deal which could be agreed in principle soon.

Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss said:

“We are working round the clock to get this deal done in the coming weeks. We are both big fans of each other’s high-quality products, so this could be a huge boost that allows British shoppers to enjoy lower prices and British exports to be even more competitive.

“New Zealand and the UK are natural partners united by modern values. An agreement would reflect those ideals and is a win-win for both countries.

“It would also be an important step towards our accession to CPTPP, helping the UK gain access to 11 of the world’s biggest and fastest-growing economies across the Pacific region and opening doors to dynamic markets across the world.”

Trade between the two countries was worth £2.3 billion last year and would be expected to increase following a deal. New Zealand is a leading member of CPTPP, a free trade area worth around £9 trillion and is supporting the UK’s bid to join. Joining CPTPP would open opportunities for UK businesses to sell in some of the largest and fastest-growing markets in the world, populated by half a billion people.

Dominic Goudie, Head of International Trade, the Food & Drink Federation, said:

“We hope to see the UK conclude an ambitious trade deal with New Zealand which removes tariffs facing UK exports of quality manufactured food and drink. This would provide a welcome boost for producers and exporters of iconic UK products including chocolate, coffee, biscuits and soft drinks, where UK sales in New Zealand are currently £10m each year. Our sector has significant untapped potential for export growth and removing existing tariffs will make UK products more competitive, creating the conditions to drive future growth in New Zealand.

“Given their relative geographical proximity, having deals in place with both New Zealand and Australia that deliver similarly ambitious outcomes will be welcome news for UK producers seeking to expand sales around the world, as many will look to supply to both markets.”

Louise Ryan, Managing Director, The Gin Hub Pernod Ricard, said:

“A UK-New Zealand FTA is great news for gin produced in the UK. There’s a big opportunity for growth in New Zealand, with the gin category doubling in size in the last three years, led by the premium+ segment.

“Cutting the gin tariff to zero will enable us to put more investment behind our iconic British brands, such as our blockbuster Beefeater London Dry Gin, which is accelerating growth with the launch of new flavours: Beefeater Pink Strawberry and Beefeater Blood Orange.”

Other popular New Zealand products which could potentially be made cheaper under a UK-New include apples and Manuka honey. We imported over £42m of apples from New Zealand in 2020 and over £32m of honey even though they currently face tariffs of 8% and 16% respectively. These are set to be eliminated as part of the agreement.

We are seeking your views on our proposed changes to the rules around the movement of pets into Great Britain.

CO2 monitors will be provided to all state-funded education settings from September, so staff can quickly identify where ventilation needs to be improved.

Letting fresh air into indoor spaces can help remove air that contains virus particles and is important in preventing the spread of Covid-19.

Backed by a £25 million government investment, the new monitors will enable staff to act quickly where ventilation is poor and provide reassurance that existing ventilation measures are working.

The majority of c. 300,000 monitors will become available over the autumn term, with special schools and alternative provision prioritised to receive their full allocation from September given their higher-than-average numbers of vulnerable pupils.

The government has also launched a trial of air purifiers in 30 schools in Bradford, which is designed to assess the technology in education settings and whether they could reduce the risk of transmission.

As students in England return to classrooms from next week, this is just one of the measures that will be in place in schools to help reduce transmission. Students and staff will also be asked to continue twice-weekly testing, with two on-site tests provided for secondary and college students as they return.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

Providing all schools with CO2 monitors will help them make sure they have the right balance of measures in place, minimising any potential disruption to education and allowing them to focus on world class lessons and catch up for the children who need it.

By keeping up simple measures such as ventilation and testing, young people can now enjoy more freedom at school and college.

Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said:

We are all enjoying the return to a more normal way of life and getting our children back into school is a really important part of that process. We want to ensure schools are both safe and comfortable for students and staff – and have been clear that good ventilation is crucial.

As well as offering vaccines to 16 and 17 year olds and regular testing, we continue to work with the Department for Education to manage COVID-19 in schools and colleges. This includes the pilot we are running to test different air cleaning methods in school settings.

CO2 monitors are portable so schools and other settings will be able to move them around to test their full estate, starting with areas they suspect may be poorly ventilated.

The programme will provide schools and other settings with sufficient monitors to take representative readings from across the indoor spaces in their estate, assessing all spaces in a relatively short space of time.

More details will be available following the completion of procurement, however all schools and colleges are expected to receive at least partial allocations during the autumn term, enabling all settings to monitor areas where they believe airflow may be weakest.

As the monitors are rolled out the department will provide guidance on their use.

Secondary schools and colleges will be conducting on-site covid testing of their pupils, which can start before the start of term. They can stagger the return of pupils over the first week of term as needed to support the delivery of testing. Pupils should then continue to test twice weekly at home until the end of September, when this will be reviewed.

ENDS

New plans to crack down on puppy smuggling and ban the import of dogs with cropped ears or docked tails have been set out by the UK Government today.

The new powers, which also include raising the minimum age for importing a puppy from 15 weeks to six months and banning the import of heavily pregnant dogs to help protect puppy and mother welfare, are aimed at safeguarding the welfare of the thousands of puppies and dogs that come into Great Britain from overseas each year.

More than 66,000 dogs were commercially imported into the UK last year according to Animal and Plant Health Agency figures. However, evidence shows a recent rise in low-welfare imports and smuggling activity, with border authorities seeing around a 260% increase in the number of young puppies being intercepted for not meeting the UK’s pet import rules – from 324 in 2019 to 843 in 2020.

The proposals are part of a raft of measures included in an eight-week GB-wide consultation which seeks views from the public and stakeholders on government proposals to tackle puppy smuggling and low-welfare imports by unscrupulous breeders and traders.

In addition, the consultation asks the public and stakeholders for views on new penalties for breaching these rules, changes to the detention and rehoming process and whether the proposals should be extended to cover cats and ferrets.

Launching the consultation, Animal Welfare Minister Lord Zac Goldsmith said:

Puppy smuggling is a grim trade, and we are determined to clamp down on it.

Raising the minimum import age for puppies will help protect thousands of animals that are brought into the country each year and stop criminals looking to profit from the rise in demand for pets.

We already have one of the toughest pet travel border checking regimes in the world and as an independent nation outside the EU we are going even further by preventing anyone from bringing in dogs which have undergone inhumane procedures such as ear cropping or tail docking.

These new measures build on our plans to raise animal welfare standards across the board as part of our Action Plan for Animal Welfare.

RSPCA chief executive Chris Sherwood said:

In recent years we’ve seen a huge increase in the number of dogs being commercially imported into the UK as well as the number of dogs being reported for having undergone mutilated procedures such as cropped ears.

These are major dog welfare issues that need addressing as a matter of urgency in order to protect dogs from unnecessary suffering and to protect the public from falling victim to criminals who are trying to cash in on these dogs’ value.

We’re really pleased that the Government – which pledged to tackle these issues among many others in its Action Plan for Animal Welfare – is launching this consultation and we hope that these new measures will be implemented efficiently so that we can crackdown on the illegal dog trade once and for all.

Owen Sharp, Chief Executive of Dogs Trust said:

We are delighted that today’s consultation could bring us one step closer to ending the abhorrent puppy smuggling trade. Over the last six years, Dogs Trust has spearheaded the campaign to crack down on puppy smuggling, after our first undercover investigation in 2014 exposed widespread abuse of the Pet Travel Scheme by unscrupulous dealers, bringing in puppies for sale.

Since setting up our Puppy Pilot in 2015 we have cared for more than 2000 puppies which were seized at UK borders, often in horrendous conditions. We have seen puppies as young as 4 weeks old being smuggled into the country and dogs with open wounds from ear cropping as well as heavily pregnant dogs close to giving birth.

We are pleased that the consultation has set out proposals to tackle these issues and hope it results in tougher penalties for these crimes, as currently only a handful of cases have ever been prosecuted and the existing penalties are sadly no deterrent. We will continue to work closely with the Government to be the voice for dogs and put forward our recommendations to ensure the proposed legislation effects real change.

Media vet, animal welfare campaigner, and founder of the Lucy’s Law and #BanPuppyImports campaigns, Dr Marc Abraham OBE says:

This important Government consultation is hugely welcome and will hopefully bring us another step closer to ending widespread cruelty to puppies and their parents. For decades, both the legal and illegal importation of young puppies has enabled and encouraged low-welfare breeding practices and dog exploitation across Europe, with puppies often separated from their mothers too early, then sent long distances often riddled with all kinds of disease, straight to their unsuspecting new owners in the UK.

By introducing these positive dog welfare proposals we can make significant progress in the fight against these cruel practices. I would like to thank the UK Government for listening to the evidence presented by campaigners and hope we can secure these positive changes needed to protect the puppies, their parents, and the British dog-owning public.

Puppies that are imported too young face a significantly higher risk of developing illnesses or even death.

Raising the minimum age for bringing puppies in to the UK will therefore ensure that they are not separated from their mothers too early and will allow them to develop further ahead of being taken on potentially long and stressful journeys which can have a lasting impact on their temperament and behaviour.

The RSPCA has also recently reported a 620% rise in reports of dogs found to have had their ears cropped, covering from 2015 to 2020. Ear cropping is a painful process where a dog’s outer ears are surgically altered or removed altogether to make them look more aggressive. The surgical procedure, which has been illegal in this country since 2006, can hinder their ability to communicate with other dogs and their owners.

The majority of these dogs are suspected to have undergone the procedure overseas and under the new rules set out in the consultation launched today they would be banned from entering the country.

Last year the Dogs Trust warned the public about the risk of buying dogs online after rescuing dozens of puppies that were illegally imported into the country. Victims of this cruel trade included a group of six underage puppies seized at Dover port after being found covered in sticky oil and suffering from diarrhoea. The puppies had been illegally imported from Romania and were travelling in the back of a van for more than 24 hours. They had to be shaved to remove the oil from their fur.

In September 2020, four beagle puppies were also found in the back of an abandoned vehicle in Greater London. At eight weeks old, they weighed just two kilograms each and were very hungry and dehydrated. They are believed to have been illegally imported from the Republic of Ireland, to be sold onto prospective buyers in the UK. After spending three weeks in the care of the Dogs Trust, they went on to loving new homes.

The proposals launched today build on the UK Government’s commitment to end the cruel practice of puppy smuggling and low welfare imports, as set out in the Government’s Action Plan for Animal Welfare and Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill. The responses to the consultation will inform future government policy in this area, helping to deliver a manifesto commitment made in 2019.

The consultation can be found here.