The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Union boss in warning over trading deals
NFU Scotland (NFUS) president Martin Kennedy has slammed the UK Government for failing to protect Scottish farming interests after its free trade agreements (FTA) with Australia and New Zealand kicked into force at midnight.
While UK consumers may be looking forward to cheaper prices for firm favourites on supermarket shelves, it is highly likely UK farmers will suffer as more Australian and New Zealand produce becomes available.
Mr Kennedy described the UK Government’s track record on the two southern hemisphere nations free trade agreements as “one of failure”.
He said: “Both of these
FTAS were negotiated in 2021 without the interests of primary producers in mind but with politicallydriven haste in the wake of the UK’S departure from the EU.
“The UK Government failed to protect Scottish farming interests, failed to properly engage with stakeholders and failed to provide Parliament with proper scrutiny on such deals once agreed.”
He also accused the government of using agricultural interests and access to the industry’s food and drink sector as “cheap bargaining chips’’ to secure what it viewed as a more lucrative market access for other sectors.
“There was little or nothing in these damaging trade deals for Scottish food or farming, a fact that former Defra secretary of state George Eustice recently recognised,” he said.
“NFUS has consistently highlighted the clear lack of meaningful safeguards to protect domestic food security, in addition to the cumulative impacts for particular sectors such as beef, lamb and dairy posed by two giants of global agrifood trade.”
He also hit out at the “Farm to Fork” summit hosted at Downing Street on May 16 and its pledge to put agriculture up front and protect sensitive sectors. “For NFUS, these commitments are certainly welcome, but in the case of Australia and New Zealand, they ring hollow and the horse has now bolted.”