UK’S ‘no-deal’ Brexit plan ‘offers no new answers’
The publication yesterday of the first tranche of UK government “technical notices” preparing for the possibility of a “no-deal” Brexit did little to reassure the farming sector.
Claiming it left the same questions as before, farming unions called for clarity on what exactly will happen to trade of all agri-food products if the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement on 29 March next year.
And Scotland’s rural economy secretary Fergus Ewing said that the documents provided little reassurance that the UK government had robust plans in place to provide longer term support for agriculture – or to address the economic challenges which Brexit was likely to pose to rural businesses. “Farmers and food producers
want to know if they will still be able to sell their products in the event of the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal in March 2019,” said Ewing.
While he said the documents laid bare the risks facing Scottish farmers, he said they failed to provide much-needed clarity over the long term, simply reiterating previous UK government statements.
NFU Scotland president, Andrew Mccornick agreed the announcement had failed to tell farmers or crofters anything new, adding that there had been no clear steer on how businesses should prepare, particularly if “no-deal” was the outcome.
He said such an outcome would be hugely destabilising and would mean the UK becoming a Third World country overnight, with hard borders and the WTO default imposed. “That runs completely contrary to our desire for trade to be as friction free as possible,” said Mccornick.
The English NFU also called for clarity after details released for the organic sector showed that a cliff-edge Brexit would halt sales to Europe.
The document revealed that no Uk-certified organic products would be allowed into Europe until the certification bodies were officially recognised by the EU Commission – a process which was likely to take at least nine months.
“The technical notice for organic farming is a warning for us on the future of trade of all agri-food products,” said English NFU president Minette Batters. “If all these products were subjected to the same problems in approvals and certification then this could result in effectively a trade embargo on exports to the EU.”