National Farmers’ Union president Minette Batters told Channel 4 News last night that, “A no-deal for farming for food in this country is catastrophic.”
She said, “We quite simply would be priced out of the marketplace if you’re looking at 62% tariffs on lamb, 85% on beef, 54% on cheddar as an example, 51% on barley.
“Europe is our closest and most valuable trading partner worth £14.5 billion for UK agriculture.
“If you compare that to our second closest trading partner which is the US, currently that market is worth £2.2 billion.
“Further, if you take Japan and Canada, they are only 4% of the value of the EU market.
“So it’s a critical market both for imports and for exports… What’s often forgotten is our fishermen need the EU market. We sell the vast proportion of our fish into the EU.
“So we need a comprehensive deal. We need a free and frictionless deal for all sectors. I don’t see any positives in a no deal scenario.”
