Responding to the report by the Trade and Agriculture Commission
(TAC), NFU President Minette Batters said: “The NFU has long
argued how important it is to properly examine, and to try to
reconcile, the complexities and tensions inherent in government
trade policy – one that seeks both to liberalise trade and to
safeguard our high food and farming standards and our valued
British farming sector. The report does this very well and I
thank all of the Commissioners, in particular the Chairman
, for their work
over the past eight months.
“It’s clear from the report that there is a tough balance to be
struck between doing trade deals on the one hand and safeguarding
our high standards of food and farming on the other. This report
dispels the notion that it is easy, which is the message UK
farmers and the British public have too often been given.
“I commend the Commission for setting out a bold vision to manage
those tensions, growing our exports and improving our
competitiveness while continuing to meet the high expectations of
UK consumers for high quality, sustainably-produced food. But the
report is also clear that this will involve trade-offs and
difficult decisions and that there will be winners and losers as
the government pursues its new, independent trade policy.
“Ultimately, how those trade-offs are managed and weighed remains
a decision for ministers and it is vital that the government now
sets out, without delay, how it intends to accommodate these
recommendations within a trade strategy that works for UK farmers
and consumers alike.
“At its core such a strategy must contain a clear commitment to
support our farmers in producing food to the highest standards of
animal welfare and environmental protection, in leading the world
in climate-friendly farming and in remaining the beating heart of
our rural communities. I am pleased to see such an approach
reflected in the Commission’s deliberations.
“There are many good recommendations in the report that the
government should adopt, in particular the need for a coherent
and explicit trade strategy encompassing both Free Trade
Agreements (FTAs) and general trade policy, an approach to
imports that has our high standards of production at its core,
and a Food and Drink Exports Council to foster a collaborative
and targeted approach to growing markets overseas.
“Of course, this is only the start of the next stage of the
journey. We look forward to the Secretary of State setting out
her detailed response to the report very soon and we also await
the operational details of the Statutory TAC which will follow up
this work, scrutinising trade deals before they are ratified.
“The Commission has set the stage for government to develop its
trade policy in a way that puts the UK at the forefront of more
sustainable models of production and consumption both here and
across the world. I hope the government seizes that opportunity
with both hands.”
-ends-
Notes to editor:
-
Read the
TAC report here.
- NFU director of trade and business strategy Nick von
Westenholz sits on the TAC.
- In June 2020, more than a million people signed the NFU’s
petition urging the government to safeguard the UK’s high animal
welfare, environmental and food safety standards in future trade
deals. This led to the introduction of the TAC.
