Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you.

Our next agenda item is a decision on taking business in private. Do members agree to take item 3 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Our next agenda item is to continue to take evidence as part of the committee’s inquiry into the review of the trade and co-operation agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom. We are joined this morning by Tavish Scott, the chief executive of Salmon Scotland. Welcome—I am sure that you are familiar with this room, Mr Scott. We are also joined by Donna Fordyce, the chief executive of Seafood Scotland; Scott Walker, executive manager of the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers; and Fiona Burnett, the technical director of Scottish Quality Crops. A warm welcome to you all, and thank you for your submissions to the committee prior to the evidence session.

In their submissions, Seafood Scotland highlights that customs compliance, including meeting rules of origin, as well as complying with the sanitary and phytosanitary—SPS—requirements, has

“added a considerable time and cost burden for Scottish seafood traders”;

Scottish Quality Crops suggests that recognising

“equivalence in SPS standards across EU and GB borders”

would be welcome; and Salmon Scotland seeks a “bespoke and mutually convenient” SPS and veterinary agreement. Please can you briefly outline the particular challenges and say what you would want to see in such an agreement? What would that look like from your point of view?

That is great. I will now bring in Mr Stewart and then Ms Forbes.

I will ask a couple of final questions. Everything that has been said today has reminded us that Brexit was not an event but is a process. We are still going through that process and will be doing so for some time. Not only do we face UK elections, but the European elections are coming up. Those will delay any movement, although the European Commission will be up and running fairly soon afterwards.

You have talked about the importance of relationships and of building them. What tends to happen in the EU is that officials do three years on rotation, then move back to their country. We are now moving into a period in which many officials in Brussels will not remember the UK’s being part of that process, or will not have dealt with it. Will the challenges of keeping and maintaining those relationships therefore be harder? How much more effort do you have to put into building the key relationships in the organisations that you work with in Europe?

My other question will be about divergence, but I ask that one first.

You also mentioned regulation and change in Brussels and you spoke about divergence. Last week, producers told us about the amount of time that they are spending trying to keep on top of the regulations, and about the need for consultants. We also heard about a producer for whom the regulations changed mid-shipment, which caused a huge loss that the business could not sustain. That producer decided that it was too risky to continue trying to export.

The Welsh and Scottish Governments have made a commitment to keeping pace with EU regulation, and Northern Ireland is in the position of having to keep up with regulations. Is enough information being given by the UK and Scottish Governments to support producers that are trying to export in that context? Is that the major barrier? What are the other barriers that prevent smaller producers from coming back in, as time moves on and we learn lessons?

You have answered my questions. I am looking at committee members, but I do not think that there are any more questions.

I thank everyone. This has been an extremely helpful and informative session for our inquiry. We are not a subject committee, so it is quite unusual for us to get into front-line issues. We usually think more about constitutional aspects, so we have enjoyed the meetings.

The committee will now move into private session to deal with our final agenda item.

I invite Mr Dario Riccomini to speak. I hope that I pronounced your name properly.

Have the debt collectors been instructed to do that by someone?

We will move to questions from Mr Bibby and then Mr Brown.