Kilkenny man condemns British government over 'illegal' tariffs

European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan has slammed as “beggars belief” the no-deal Brexit tariffs on agricultural goods proposed by the British government.

The Kilkenny man said any decision to introduce a temporary tariff regime in the case of a no-deal Brexit was an 'ill-thought out' proposal aimed at breaking European Union unity and frightening Ireland.

The European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development from the village of Tullaroan condemned the British government for proposing to impose “a draconian regime” of tariffs on March 29th and said the contradictions of the proposal “beggars belief”.

“We don’t even know if it’s legal, if it’s compatible with the World Trade Organisation rules,” Mr Hogan told RTÉ’s Six One News. “I think this is an ill-thought out proposal to change the news cycle in London. In the event of a new deal I don’t believe these issues will actually be relevant.

“The purpose of this is to try and break the European Union unity in respect of Ireland in particular. The EU has been very strongly supportive of the Irish issues and the UK do not like this. So every effort is being made between now and the European Council meeting next week to try and break that unity, and it will fail," he predicted.