NPA joins calls for Government to stand up for farmers in Australia and NZ deals

As trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand reach an advanced stage, the NPA has joined farming organisations from across the UK urging the Government to remain committed to its negotiating objectives and to stand up for UK farmers.

The UK Farming Roundtable, involving 19 farming bodies across a range of sectors and from all four nations of the UK, has agreed five principles that are of crucial importance to UK food and farming in the negotiations:

• Upholding our high standards of production and positioning the UK as a global leader in sustainable farming and in tackling climate change;
• Recognising the specific sensitivities of some UK farming sectors in the current negotiations;
• Balancing improved access and lower tariffs for agricultural imports with quotas and other safeguards to avoid irreversible damage to UK farming;
• Ensuring any trade deal is genuinely reciprocal and that the benefits properly reflect how valuable UK market access is for foreign exporters;
• Acknowledging that these deals will establish precedents that will be reflected in all our trade deals.

Speaking after the meeting NPA Chairman, Rob Mutimer, said: “The deals the UK agrees with Australia and New Zealand will set the precedent for our future trading relationships across the globe. It could open the floodgates to major pork exporters like the USA, where producers operate to certain standards that wouldn’t be allowed in this country.

“We absolutely support the Government’s ambition to liberalise trade and expand markets for our world-leading produce overseas. However, trade deals must be fair for both sides and we cannot allow British pig farmers to be undercut by meat produced to lower welfare standards abroad.”

You can read a full copy of the statement here.

You can read more industry comment here.