Tariffs on goods ‘not the end of the world’
Tariffs imposed on goods after a no-deal B rex it are "not necessarily the end of the world", a minister in the Scottish Office has said.
David Dugu ids aid that there would still be access to the EU market after Brexit in the event of no agreement being reached.
His comments came after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that a no-deal outcome is "very, very likely".
Mr Duguidt old the BBC’ s Politics Scotland: "That's not necessarily the end of the world.
"We talk about financial tariffs, we talk about non-tariff barriers, these are all the things we' re trying to avoid with a free trade agreement.
"We export from countries we don't have free trade agreements with, on Australia terms for example, which is the expression often used.
"It doesn't stop exports, it doesn't stop trade."
Scotland' s Constitution Secretary, Mike Russell,said tariffs would be "a disaster".
For Mr Duguid or anybody else to say these are irrele - vant is nonsense," he said.
"Tariff son lamb, for example, a big issue in Scotland, would be 60 per cent. That's not currency fluctuation, that's disaster."
The Scottish Office minister also sought to counter claims that a no-deal Brexit would result in food shortages, saying there has been some" scaremongering" around the issue.
He said :" There is a lot of scaremongering going around, not least by the SNP and others who would have us believe that the sky is going to fall down."