Countryside Alliance demands ‘pragmatic’ trade deals
We’ve not heard much from the Countryside Alliance recently. This article is the intro to a very interesting paper. It tells us:
The UK government needs to maintain tariff-free trade access with the EU post-Brexit and be “pragmatic” when it comes to developing new trading relationships with non-EU countries, according to the Countryside Alliance.
The rural lobby group has published a Brexit policy document which outlines its demands to ensure that the countryside remains “living and working” once the UK is outside Europe.
The group argues that if high tariffs are imposed on the agricultural sector then it will be damaging to UK producers and EU consumers.http://www.fwi.co.uk/news/countryside-alliance-demands-pragmatic-trade-deals.htm
“Approximately 90% of UK beef, sheep and dairy exports go to the EU and high tariffs would be particularly damaging to some of our most rural areas where farming is a vital part of the local economy and community,” it says.
The document also calls on the UK government to ensure food and agricultural produce are central to any new trade deals with non-EU countries.
However, it adds that while the government should be ambitious, it must also be pragmatic, because some farmers will always struggle to compete on the global market.
“Farmers in the uplands, and other marginal areas, are not in fair competition with global producers who are operating in very different environments, often with fewer safety and animal welfare laws to comply with.