At last! A Brexit dividend!
According to Michael Gove in parliament today, as a result of cutting tariffs, "we should see a 15% reduction in the cost of honey from New Zealand, a 9% cut in the cost of grapes from South America and a 7% reduction in the cost of wine from Argentina." Whoopee! That should do the trick and convert everyone to the benefits of Brexit!Or maybe not: the National Farmers' Union has a rather different take on the prospects:"We will see - from day one - farm businesses facing new, high tariffs on much of the 60% of our exports that go into the EU, while tariffs on goods coming into the UK will be set far, far lower, and in many cases won’t be applied at all.Without the maintenance of tariff protections, we are in danger of opening up the UK to imported food which would be illegal to be produced here, produced at a lower cost because it may fail to meet the environmental and animal welfare standards which are legally required of our own farmers – flooding our market and resulting in unsustainable price falls.Not only could this be terrible news for farmers, whose very businesses will be under threat, but also for consumers who enjoy the high-quality and affordable British food they produce.Farmers are going to feel betrayed by this government’s failure to act now in making sure that all that can be done is being done to help mitigate the damaging effects of a no-deal Brexit." So not such good news after all...
Richard Carter ● 2591d15 Comments