FARMERS are “seriously worried” about the consequences of a zero-tariff post-Brexit trade deal with Australia, according to the president of the National Farmers Union Scotland (NFUS).
It has been reported that the UK Government is in a row over whether to give Australian farmers tariff-free access to markets here. Representatives from the sector and opposition politicians have warned this would threaten farming, particularly in Scotland and Wales.
International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and Brexit minister Lord Frost are both on board with the idea – but Environment Secretary George Eustice and Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove are said to have concerns over a backlash.
READ MORE: Jim Fairlie: Why Tories' post-Brexit Australian trade deal is grave threat to Scottish farms
Meanwhile The Times reports today that the Prime Minister is set to side with Truss and Frost in backing the deal.
Yesterday deputy first minister John Swinney said the deal would “devastate the hill farming communities I represent” – and SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford commented: “I shudder to think of the impact on crofting communities.”
Newly elected SNP MSP Jim Fairlie (below), who co-founded Farmers for Yes, wrote for National Extra last night, saying: “If this deal goes through, that increased pressure on our domestic production combined with the problems facing export to the EU will be crippling.
“Farmers should note well the broken promises made to fisherfolk and see that the livelihoods of Scottish hill farmers are simply pawns in the UK’s chess games.”
Speaking to Good Morning Britain today, NFUS president Martin Kennedy expressed his concerns.
“Seriously worried about any sort of full liberalisation of unfettered access from a country like Australia and the scale they’re in,” he told the programme.
“That threatens not only the price … it’s the way we farm here, it’s our environmental standards, it’s our animal welfare standards that we pride ourselves on particularly when it comes to Scots beef and Scots lamb. That’s what we feel really threatened by.”
READ MORE: Australia's zero-tariff demand to UK a 'huge threat' to Scottish agriculture
Asked how he would feel if Johnson does sign up to the zero-tariff plan, Kennedy said he and other farmers would be “seriously betrayed”.
“We were promised that any future deal wouldn’t undermine Scottish and UK farmers with any deal … we would feel betrayed if that were to happen.”
The Department for International Trade has said any deal with Australia will “not undercut UK farmers or compromise our high standards”.
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