A cautious welcome for EU transition agreement

Unlike the immediate and forceful condemnation from the fishing sector, there has been a cautious welcome from farming organisations to the UK’S 21-month transitional period agreed this week as part of the deal for the UK leaving the EU.

But industry bodies said that while the agreement provided some idea of what lay ahead, there was still a real need for a huge amount of detail to be clarified.

NFU Scotland director of policy Jonnie Hall said that, after months of political wrangling, it was very welcome that the UK and EU negotiators had now agreed the Brexit transition period, and the rules and obligations which the UK would need to adhere to.

“This provides some much-needed certainty to NFU Scotland members – the majority will be making decisions for their businesses now which will have implications in 2020 and beyond.

“However, NFU Scotland is pressing for clarification on what the agreed transition period will mean for the phasing out of the common agricultural policy and the phasing in of new agricultural policies in the UK.”

He said that doubts remained over trading arrangements which would apply between the UK and EU both during transition, and in the short-to-medium term after December 2020 until new free trade deals were ratified.

Maintaining unfettered and frictionless trade with the EU was, he said, vital during this time via a customs union which protected Scottish producers from non-tariff barriers and being undercut by imported produce.

“A cliff-edge scenario is simply not an option for Scottish food producers, nor the UK consumers which they produce for,” said Hall, adding that while the UK government continued to suggest it would leave the customs union, it appeared that there was no other suitable alternative, at least until the terms of new trading arrangements were known.

“Now that progress has been made on agreeing the timeline for the transition period, we hope to gain meaningful engagement from the UK government on this fundamental principle,” said Hall.

The approach was echoed by English NFU president, Minette Batters who welcomed the agreement but said: “There is still outstanding vital information which food and farming businesses need to understand.”

Batters agreed that it was vital that any cliff-edge scenario was avoided: “This is best achieved by retaining membership of the EU customs union until a settled free trade relationship comes into force. “