British agriculture would be 'fine' and may even benefit from leaving the European Union without a free trade agreement, Farm Minister George Eustice has said.
Mr Eustice, who was speaking at the AHDB meat exports conference in Warwick, said the agriculture sector would benefit from tariffs imposed under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.
"It sounds surprising," he said.
"The reason for that is the competition from Irish beef, competition from salads from Spain or vegetables from France, goes down and actually gives a firming of farmgate prices in the UK.
"Our priority is to get that Free Trade Agreement but if during the course of development of agriculture policy it became apparent that we might be coming out on WTO scenarios, obviously at that point we would start putting in some thinking as to what the domestic policy response to that situation would have to be."
'Far-reaching'
But AHDB head of strategic insight David Swales said the UK would not be able to forge its own trade policy if it had WTO imposed trade tariffs.
"The WTO exists primarily to liberalise world trade," Mr Swales said.
"These rules are far-reaching and have implications not only for UK trade but also for UK policy and policy for the devolved nations.
"In terms of policy support, the type of policy the UK can adopt post-Brexit is also constrained by WTO rules, with trade-distorting subsidies being limited and reduced over time.
"Whilst the overall level of support is more likely to be impacted by the UK government’s spending priorities, the structure of agricultural policy will have to adhere to WTO rules."
