“This is huge for every single person and I think it’s still not understood what no deal means”
As the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit increases with every waking day, warnings of its potentially disastrous consequences are coming thick and fast.
Nissan today announced their plans to withdraw from an agreement to build their new X-Trail model at the firm’s plant in Sunderland due to the uncertainty surrounding the UK’s relationship with the EU, which many have warned is a sign of things to come.
And now, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, Minette Batters, has told Sky News: “This is huge for every single person and I think it’s still not understood what no deal means.”
Speaking on Sky’s Sunday morning politics show, Ridge on Sunday, Batters said: “The no deal aspect for my sector is absolutely huge.
“Agriculture is very reliant on its critical dependencies. 95% of our animal medicine vaccines are currently made in the EU. Chemicals, fertilisers… It’s been a vital route if you like.
“But the real aspect in all of this and why we believe that long term, to crash out without a deal is so bad, not just for our sector but for food in general… You’ve been talking about food inflation, and the government is clear, it doesn’t want to see a rise of more than 5%, and so it’s prepared to allow food to come in here without any tariffs on it…
“For animals and animal products, farmers would face an immediate trade embargo, we’d be on third country most favoured nation status from March 30, potentially carved out of the market for six months, organics carved out for nine months or longer.
“And then of course when we regain market access, we face the high tariff wall of the EU. And it’s clear that the government intends to impose its own tariff wall, potentially no tariff wall on food imports. It can’t just do that for the EU, it has to do that for the rest of the world.
'This is huge for every single person and I think it's still not understood what no deal means' – National Farmers' Union president @Minette_Batters explains just how disastrous a no deal Brexit would be for farmers and the food industry in the UK. #Ridge pic.twitter.com/KFZrHoKNtK
— Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge (@SkyPoliticsHub) February 3, 2019
“So we’d be subsumed by cheap imports and we know that British consumers really value our high standards of animal welfare, environmental protection and above all else, food safety.
Batters added: “This is huge for every single person and I think it’s really not understood what no deal means.”
So there you have it, a farming expert thinks a no deal Brexit could have disastrous consequences for the quality of food in Britain as well as British farmers’ business.
But of course, we’re fed up of listening to experts, right?
