What's your plan for British farming, Boris?

The English National Farmers Union this week urged the Prime Minister to reveal the detail of his strategy to manage the impact of opening the UK market to big agricultural exporters like Australia, New Zealand and the US, while also building up our own exporting muscle to sell more British produce abroad.

The domestic farming unions have repeatedly warned that large-scale tariff liberalisation and increased imports will lead to severe pressure on UK farmgate prices, potentially to levels that will cause significant harm to farm businesses. Neither should trade deals undermine the UK's own high farming standards by rewarding lower standards overseas. To mitigate these threats, the ENFU this week asked the UK government to –

• Conduct a rigorous economic assessment of the predicted cumulative impact of free trade agreements on UK agriculture;

• Publish its response to the Trade and Agriculture Commission’s report of March 2021, in particular how it intends to pursue a liberalised trade policy alongside its assurances not to compromise our high standards;

• Set out a detailed export strategy that includes match-funding for export promotion and market development, and investment in trade diplomacy overseas;

• Develop a comprehensive strategy to improve productivity and competitiveness at home for UK farmers;

• Establish a clear and explicit process to review the impact of our free trade agreements.

NFU president Minette Batters said: “Looking at the recently announced UK-Australia deal, the tariff-free access being granted to Australian farmers from the outset is incredibly significant. We have repeatedly raised our concerns about this level of tariff liberalisation on sensitive sectors, such as beef, lamb and sugar, and the subsequent impact this could have on domestic producers if they are undercut by imports.

“These are enormous volumes and it’s not clear at all that the safeguards that have been announced will have any effect," said Ms Batters. "For example, the fifth year of the tariff safeguard on lamb would only kick in if Australian producers have already shipped over 150% of the UK’s current import requirement. It’s hard to know if it is British lamb producers or the carrying capacity of our docks that are really being safeguarded here.

“As the final details of how the tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) are administered and how the safeguards will operate are negotiated, I expect the government to engage directly with the UK food and farming industry immediately to ensure these aspects of the deal are as effective as possible," she said. "In particular, imports of sensitive products like beef, lamb and sugar under TRQs or subject to safeguards must be managed so that distortion of the domestic market is minimised.

“Just over a year ago, more than a million people put their name to a petition demanding that trade deals do not compromise our high standards of production," recalled Ms Batters. "It remains to be seen how the government is keeping its promise to the nation, and those one million people in particular, not to undermine our farmers when you look at the details of this agreement.

“It is imperative the government explains how it will work with farmers in the UK, so they can continue to produce the high-quality food the public wants in the face of huge potential volumes of imports produced in very different systems that the public would not put up with if they were adopted by British farmers," she stressed.

“We recognise the advantages of striking independent trade deals and being able to sell our fantastic British produce abroad, but this must be accompanied by a strategy that details how we will improve our trade diplomacy, including boots on the ground focusing on agri-food exports alongside measures to improve the productivity and competitiveness of UK farming. The NFU and its members stand ready to work with this government on making trade a success and something that can work for both parties.”