‘Barrier-free access to EU needed by farmers’
THE “overwhelming view” of people working in Welsh farming who spoke to MPs during a major investigation into how Brexit could affect the nation’s agriculture is that the UK should stay in the single market and customs union.
The critical importance of the EU market to Wales’ farmers is laid out today in the findings of an inquiry by Welsh MPs.
Its publication comes just days after the UK Government described its hopes to create “a free trade area for goods” with the EU.
The Welsh Affairs committee is adamant that “barrier-free access to EU markets [is] essential to the future of Welsh agriculture.” Its members also warn against cutting off the supply of farmworkers and demand that the UK Government seeks Welsh consent for future trade deals.
The committee states: “[The] UK Government should recognise that the overwhelming view of the representatives we heard from was that they would be best served by retaining membership of the Single Market and Customs Union, in order to ensure current access to EU markets with no new barriers – be they in the form of tariffs, customs controls or other checks.”
It also concluded that the EU market is crucial for Welsh farms: “Over 80% of food and animal exports, including over 90% of exports of meat, dairy and eggs, and animal feed, go to the EU” and found that farmers fear Brexit could make trade with the EU “impossible”.
Laying out why farmers are so worried, the report states: “The concern of the industry is that, on leaving the EU, the imposition of tariffs could make it impossible to export to key EU markets. We heard, for example, that if the UK were to trade with the EU using the Common External Tariff, effective tariffs of 84% could be applied to cattle carcasses, 46% on lamb carcasses, 61% on cuts of lamb and tariffs of between 43%-50% on pig meat.”
Gwyn Howells of Hybu Cig Cymru, the industry body for Welsh red meat, told the MPs “what we must avoid at all costs is reverting to WTO rules or tariffs on sheep meat because our exports would be decimated.”
The MPs warn that the supply of workers to farming must not be cut off: “The Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary told us that 100% of the vets who work in the Food Standards Agency – which is responsible for food safety and food hygiene across the UK – are EU graduates, and that in abattoirs and meat processing plants around 80% of the workforce could be EU nationals. Many parts of the agricultural supply chain are heavily reliant on migrant workers from the EU, who are willing to work long hours for relatively low wages...
“If the UK’s exit from the EU were to lead to a collapse in the supply of suitable workers willing to participate in physically demanding seasonal work this would increase costs for the agricultural sector and, ultimately, consumers. Such a situation must not be allowed to happen.”
Emphasising the sector’s important to the Welsh economy, they report: “The sector is a significant contributor to the Welsh economy and job market – in 2015 agriculture contributed £406m (Gross Value Added) to the Welsh economy, and accounted for around one in 25 jobs in Wales – more than twice the figure for the UK as a whole.”
Setting out what makes Wales’ farming culture distinct to the rest of the UK, the MPs say: “Welsh agriculture is structured very differently to other parts of the UK: average farm holdings are 48 hectares, smaller than in England and Scotland, and 80% of agricultural land is in ‘less favourable areas,’ where there are inherent natural challenges to farming the land.”
Glyn Roberts, President of the Farmers Union of Wales, also told the MPs that the average farm in New Zealand had possibly 2,000 to 3,000 sheep, where the average in Wales is about 70 sheep.
The MPs say the UK Government should seek Welsh consent for trade deals and should not be an afterthought, arguing: “Given the inter-dependencies between trade deals and devolved policy, there will need to be robust intergovernmental arrangements to ensure that Welsh interests, and the consequences of trade deals for devolved policy, are considered during negotiations. We recommend that the UK Government agree with the Welsh Government arrangements for seeking the input and consent of the devolved institutions in Wales on trade deals.”
They also warn of “urgent” work ahead, saying: “It is essential that, post-Brexit, Wales receives its fair share of funding for agricultural support. We welcome the reassurances from the UK Government that allocations for agricultural support will remain broadly the same over the next few years, but work needs to be undertaken as a matter of urgency to determine how future agricultural support will be distributed across the UK.
“We recommend that – before Committee stage of the Agriculture Bill in the House of Commons – the UK Government agree with the devolved administrations a mechanism for future allocations of funding for agricultural support.”
A key question is how the UK’s own single market will operate after Brexit; it is envisaged that common “frameworks” will ensure that policies pursued in each nation do not make it harder for trade to flow within the UK.
The MPs say: “It is imperative these frameworks are agreed mutually between the UK and devolved governments,” and the survival of farming is underlined as vital for Wales’ communities, language and economy.