Responding to the news that the UK-Australia trade has been
finalised, NFU President Minette Batters said: “As we feared
following the agreement in principle, there appears to be
extremely little in this deal to benefit British farmers. We will
analyse the detail in full but on the face of it, this is a
one-sided deal. When it comes to agriculture, the Australians
have achieved all they have asked for and British farmers are
left wondering what has been secured for them.
“In particular, it is disappointing that the UK government has
capitulated to Australian demands to time-limit any safeguards
for sensitive sectors. Despite assurances that these sectors
would be afforded some level of protection, we will see full
liberalisation of dairy after just six years, sugar after eight
years and beef and lamb after 15 years.
“There will also be no safeguards available for any products if
imports reach damaging levels after that 15 years is up. Just as
concerningly, the UK has agreed to beef and lamb quotas which
will favour imports of high-value cuts, despite this being the
end of the market where British farmers tend to derive any value
from their hard work.
“It’s also difficult to discern anything in this deal that will
allow us to control imports of food produced below the standards
legally required of British farmers, for instance on land
deforested for cattle production or systems that rely on the
transport of live animals in a way that would be illegal here.
“Ultimately, this deal simply serves to heap further pressure on
farm businesses at a time when they are facing extraordinary
inflationary pressure and sustained labour shortages, an issue
the entire food supply chain agreed needed urgent action at a
cross-sector summit earlier this week.
“The government needs to level with farmers about the commercial
reality of this and ditch the soundbites that lost any meaning a
long time ago. It needs to set out a detailed agri-food export
strategy, with complementary policies that will enable UK farmers
to compete and adjust. We have seen some progress as the
government begins to set out its export strategy, but much, much
more is needed and implementing our three-point plan for getting
farming ‘match-ready’ would be a good start.
“I hope that MPs will now take a good, hard look at this deal to
see if it really does match up to the government’s rhetoric to
support our farmers’ businesses and safeguard our high animal
welfare and environmental standards. I fear they will be
disappointed.”
