£6bn no-deal package ‘not enough’ say farm leaders
While the promise of a £6 billion tariff protection package in the event of a “no-deal” Brexit is a welcome commitment, the avoidance of no-deal remains the priority if the farming industry is to avoid “catastrophic consequences”.
NFU Scotland said that the pledge of a no-deal relief programme for farming and fishing – made yesterday by Tory leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt – gave some recognition to the level of devastation facing UK agriculture if the UK leaves without a deal but farming bodies yesterday warned that the package would have only a limited impact on mitigating the situation. “Our key demands on Brexit remains unchanged,” said NFU Scotland president Andrew Mccornick. “We must avoid a ‘no-deal’ and secure as close a trading arrangement with the EU as possible.
“We must gain greater control over regulations, maintain access to nonuk seasonal and permanent workers and see our leading production standards recognised in any trade deal.”
He said that while the compensation pledge sought to address the severe damage that a shift to tariffs under the WTO default would have on the sector’s crucial export trade with Europe and the rest of the world, any measures introduced would also have to take into account the disruption to trade caused by imports entering the UK without tariffs.
“With both prime ministerial candidates in Scotland this week, we have extended an offer to both campaigns to meet wth NFU Scotland representatives,” said Mccornick who said that the union’s recent Brexit survey highlighted that confidence levels in the industry were at an alltime low.
English NFU president Minette Batters warned against a no-deal outcome: “For thousands of farming businesses it would mean the loss of their biggest trading partner overnight, significant disruption to imports of key products such as animal medicines and a tariff regime that has the potential to allow imports of food to standards that would be illegal to produce in this country.”
The National Sheep Association (NSA) also gave a guarded response to the £6bn pledge, with chief executive Phil Stocker reaffirming that his organisation believed that leaving the EU without a deal would be devastating for the sheep industry.