Thread by @pmdfoster

As @scotfoodjames @scotfooddrink have pointed out the money-quote in the EFRA report on #Brexit and ongoing seafood/fish exporter woes (well-documented) is that cross-party group of MPs are calling for UK to do a vet deal with the EU. It would be a start, but not a magic bullet/1

@scotfoodjames @scotfooddrink As @MPGeorgeEustice told cmme the govt won't do "dynamic alignment" required for a Swiss-style deal, so we're left with long-failed UK arguments for "pragmatism" which EU doesn't really feel it needs to entertain. We'll wait, let Brits come begging, is what I hear /2

@scotfoodjames @scotfooddrink @MPGeorgeEustice Difficulty for UK is that the upsides from these trade deals really don't much exist for agrifoods -- really hard to see how RoW trade accounts for losses caused by cutting our noses off to spite our face with the EU. See latest @Foodanddrinkfed numbers./3

@scotfoodjames @scotfooddrink @MPGeorgeEustice @Foodanddrinkfed The hope must be -- as @MPGeorgeEustice alludes -- that time takes the heat out of all this, but it won't change EU legal positions much, I don't suspect, and in the meantime damage is being done, EU customers are finding alternative suppliers etc. /4

@scotfoodjames @scotfooddrink @MPGeorgeEustice @Foodanddrinkfed The thing is all this - for now at least - seems to come with zero political cost for the govt. Perhaps masked by #COVID19 but there is no punishment at the polls for these hits to what are (ultimately) small industries....but that itself begs a question.../5

@scotfoodjames @scotfooddrink @MPGeorgeEustice @Foodanddrinkfed If no-one really cares, why not just go ahead and do a deep SPS/Vet deal?

I guess fear of being sucked back into EU's regulatory maw...but it would be boon to producers, fix lots of NI protocol issues and, as we've seen, no-one would care/notice.

So why not?? ENDS