The National Pig Association has been formulating its priorities for the pig industry for when the UK leaves the EU.
With the announcement that Article 50 will be triggered by the end of next March, setting in motion two years of formal negotiations, farming leaders are gearing up priorities and wants.
The NPA wants to ensure the pork industry is not disadvantaged in trade negotiations.
For example, any significant reduction in import tariffs risks exposing UK producers to cheap, lower standard imports.
The trade body wants to ensure sufficient resource is deployed to fully protect UK producers against imported animal disease.
And using negotiations on a new post-Brexit farm policy to deliver grant funding or tax relief to help with reinvestment in new buildings, equipment and infrastructure to improve pig health and welfare.
'Promise of freeddom from Brussels grip'
NPA policy services officer Lizzie Wilson said the industry welcomes the clarity provided on the UK’s departure from the EU.
"But many outstanding questions remain, chief among them the future of any trading relations the UK secures with the big pigmeat exporting countries," Miss Wilson said.
"We will be making the case very strongly that is not in the interests of consumer or pig farmers to open our doors to large volumes of lower standard pigmeat imports.
"The Brexit vote was won on the promise of freedom from the grip of Brussels regulation but we will believe this when we see it.
"The UK has a record of gold-plating EU regulation so we will be watching this very closely."
NPA chairman Richard Lister raised NPA’s Brexit concerns at a meeting with Defra Ministers in September.
Lizzie is part of a UK livestock industry Brexit stakeholder group that is due to meet Farming Minister George Eustice in mid-November.
