Future planning for agriculture and trade post-Brexit

While the UK’s post-Brexit ability to strike its own trade deals might offer considerable business opportunities, this new-found freedom comes at the cost of many of the certainties which went along with EU membership.

That was the message given yesterday on the first day of NFU Scotland’s annual general meeting and conference by Trade and Agriculture Commission (TAC) chair, Tim Smith.

But while farm businesses tended to work on a longer time-scale than many – and hence were more reliant on long-term confidence to make major business decisions – he said that the work of the TAC should help provide some of the clarity needed.

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“The government needs to understand that the sector requires more clarity over the future than many other businesses types,” said Smith who has considerable experience in the food sector and who previously headed up the Food Standards Agency.

And he told the union’s virtual event that while governments themselves tended to work on five-year time-blocks, they shouldn’t ‘swing from side to side’ on food and farming issues.

“But the industry needs to be aware that while the trade deal hammered out with the EU before Christmas, which allowed many goods continued tariff-free access to the EU, removed one major hurdle, it’s likely that there will still be hills and blocks in the road.

“Scotland’s farmers are resilient – however they do need to make their voices both loud and clear about what they want.”

Smith said that while the TAC had its hands on the tiller as its report was being drawn up, its recommendations would contribute to making the future more secure for the sector.

And he said that the commission definitely had political influence as it drew its report together - meeting regularly with UK secretaries of state and devolved ministers and cabinet secretaries.

“But the final test will be how many of the TAC’s recommendations – of which we are likely to make between 20 and 25 – will be taken on board by parliament.”

He said that the statutory TAC, which would follow on from the current commission after it had completed its report, would have to ensure that any impact assessments of future trade deals were both transparent and understandable to those who were carrying out the negotiations to avoid any unintended consequences arising from any late-night, last-minute concessions.

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“Any impact assessment would need to cover all the issues and to make sure it included where all the deviations lay between different operating standards and that the negotiators understand the significance of these in order, for example, to ensure that no 3am concession was given which would have huge implications for the agriculture or food producers simply to get a better deal for the car sector”.

Smith also reassured his audience that the importance of the food and agriculture sector to the Scottish economy would be recognised in the commission’s report – and that recommendation would be made to secure Scotland’s world-wide reputation on high animal welfare standards and origins.