Keep up the pressure NFU chief urges his members

While 2017 might have been a marathon year for lobbying activities, 2018 will require at least equal efforts to ensure that agriculture remains to the forefront as politicians negotiate Brexit relationships and trade deals.

Promising that a “consistent and persistent” message would be put to those in power, NFU Scotland president Andrew Mccornick yesterday said that the union would be lobbying on all fronts as the Brexit negotiations continued.

He said that while there had been a redoubling of the union’s efforts at Westminster, the organisation would steer clear of becoming involved in any “political point scoring” which was taking place – by presenting their views to all parties in an apolitical fashion.

Commenting on the lack of any hard and fast detail on how future trading relationships and domestic agricultural policy would pan out, he said that the feedback from taking the union’s own “Change” discussion document round the country had given the organisation both the wherewithal and the authority to fill this vacuum in policy development.

“A real change in mindset 0 Andrew Mccornick calls for renewed lobbying effort was evident at the Brexit roadshows,” said Mccornick. “Members across Scotland appreciate that change is inevitable.”

He said that just as importantly membershad backed the union’s approach in initiating and influencing the many changes which the industry was currently facing.

Central to the approach was the recognition that future support should incentivise action and that beyond the current regime there should be a move away from area-based support which, he said, had thwarted innovation and stifled restructuring within the industry. However there was also a desire to avoid a “cliff-edge” Brexit with a reasonable transition period to phase in change.

Mccornick said that it had been recognised that a commonly agreed regulatory framework for Ukwide standards would be important for the functioning of a the UK internal market.

However, he stressed that it had been agreed “without dissent” that future policy should see Scottish agricultural support ringfenced and delivered by devolved administrations in order to ensure that policies and measures met the particular needs of Scotland’s farming industry.

While the majority of farmers supported a continuation of free and frictionless trade with the EU, there had also been significant fears voiced of the possibility of cheaper imports produced to lower environmental and welfare standards displacing Scottish products at home.

“And my recent visit to the US highlighted the fact that the approach there would very much continue to be ‘America First’,” said Mccornick.

He added that while much of the union’s thinking was in line with the findings of the Scottish Government’s farming champions and that of the National Council of Rural Advisers, the union would continue to push the message to the Scottish Government and to make the same case as the UK government drew together its agriculture white paper ahead of draft legislation.