Safeguards in the UK-Australia trade deal aren't enough to protect British farmers, the NFU warns 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
The main controversy around the Australia trade deal is the prospect of British farmers being undercut by cheaper Australian meat produced on larger farms, which may use production methods and practices banned in the U.K., as @EmilyThornberry argued here 2/
Govt says it is protecting farmers by capping meat imports from Australia e.g. allowing only 35,000 tonnes of beef in tariff-free, with the cap gradually falling away over time. @trussliz said this cap represents 15% of all UK beef imports from the EU 3/
Yet today the NFU hit back on these safeguards, saying the initial quotas represent `enormous volumes'. 15% access in addition to what the EU imports is `quite significant' said @nvonwestenholz and would affect prices in UK market 4/
NFU also argues there's a precedent effect for future trade negs e.g. with US. Reducing the domestic price of UK meat by opening up to likes of Australia means US will want even greater market access to make a trade deal with UK worthwhile. DIT insists no precedent effect 5/
We now wait to see the final details of the UK-Australia trade deal, with final negotiations still to be done... ends/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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