As noted last month, Bord Bia CEO Tara McCarthy mentioned that mushrooms tend to be low tariff products under World Trade Organization rules, which will prove something of a silver lining if WTO rules are implemented on foot of a hard Brexit.
However, the waters have already been muddied in the sphere of WTO negotiations. Russia has objected to the UK’s proposal for splitting its import quotas from the EU.
This will prevent the WTO’s director general giving the UK’s plan a stamp of approval. Although this may not be an immediate complication or problem it could become so.
The whole interconnectedness of trade and global politics comes into play when the landscape changes, as it did with the Brexit vote.
Leo Varadkar, the Irish Taoiseach, is adamant that any return to WTO rules as a result of the UK dropping out of the EU with no deal would result in a hard border on the island of Ireland - definitely not a state of affairs that anyone operating in business wants to see happen.
No doubt there will be more on this as things move on.
