It is a monumental day in the Brexit process and one that I bitterly disagree with. There is NO excuse for Govt not to apply a reciprocal tariff for grains. 99.8% of households eat bread made with 85% British wheat. And we have a huge harvest surplus of grain.
And then there's eggs. We consume 13 billion eggs a year. 90% produced here. 56% Retail, 23% Food Service 21% liquid and dried egg. And now 0% tariff on all imports. We'll be importing eggs that would be illegal for our farmers to produce here.
And all fruit and vegetables NO reciprocal tariff.
And back to grains. 12 million loaves of bread, 10 million cakes and biscuits and 2 million pizzas made here in the UK every day using over 85% British Wheat and with NO tariff protection we will open our doors to lower standard grains.
And for Dairy - skimmed milk powder and yogurt plus some cheeses NO tariff or TRQ. Which all begs the question on how you negotiate from here, when you're allowing everyone free access.
Two more thoughts. The #VoteLeave prospectus promised farmers they would have an EU FTA - it would be the easiest trade deal in history. More money, and less regulation. What was not to like it sounded very appealing to many. A no deal Brexit is none of the above.
Final one - in a No Deal Brexit the Tariff schedule is reviewed after 6 months. @NFUtweets will do everything in its power to stop farmers and consumers being betrayed by importing cheap raw ingredients that would be illegal for our farmers to produce here.
