The NFU President has written to the Prime Minister highlighting concerns over the government's disjointed view on food imports post-Brexit.
The NFU President, Minette Batters has written to the Prime Minister calling for the government to back British food production after the UK leaves the EU.
The letter, sent yesterday afternoon (4 July), follows a meeting between Theresa May and Mrs Batters last week at 10 Downing Street.
The meeting saw Mrs Batters convey the NFU's message to Theresa May of the significance of farming's contribution to society, the environment and the economy.
In particular, the NFU President demanded that government ensures high British standards are not undermined by the UK's post-Brexit trade policy.
Alongside this, Mrs Batters emphasised to the Prime Minister the public’s desire for “strong safeguards, with legal underpinning, to ensure food imported from overseas is not produced to lower, cheaper standards which would put our farmers at a competitive disadvantage whilst also undermining choice and safety for the public.”
Despite assurances from the Prime Minister in their meeting last week, Mrs Batters said in the letter that she is "very concerned" that there is not a united view across Government on this.
'Lower standards'
With the key cabinet meeting at Chequers this week, and with the imminent publication of the government’s Brexit White Paper, Mrs Batters said that she hopes to see the NFU’s views reflected in the government’s vision for the Brexit settlement and the future relationship with the EU.
“We support a whole economy approach that avoids carving out agri-food products from broader arrangements for trade in goods in a way that threatens to introduce unacceptable and damaging levels of friction in trade with our biggest trading partner,” she writes.
“Without firm and clear safeguards, there is a real risk that future trading relationships outside the EU will allow access to our markets for cheap imports produced to lower standards.”
Also in the letter, Mrs Batters made clear to the Prime Minister what her vision of success will look like. “I want British farmers and growers to remain the number one supplier of choice to the UK market,” she writes.
“And I want British people to be able to enjoy more sustainable, quality, affordable British food at a range of different prices that suit all incomes while exporting more great British produce abroad.”
