UK Brexit: Furious farmers lash out at Australia trade deal with stinging criticism of Liz Truss

Daily Express ^ | 27 January 2022 | Dan Falvey

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LIZ TRUSS's free trade pact with Australia faced renewed criticism from farmers today as they attacked the agreement for not being "a particularly good deal".

The National Farmers Union (NFU) claimed the deal with Canberra would open the floodgates for imports. Under the terms of the agreement, quotas on imports from Australia such as meat will be phased out over 15 years.

It means in the future there will be no limit on agricultural products shipped to Britain from Down Under.

However, the NFU's director of trade and business strategy, Nick von Westenholz, said that while there would be an influx in imports, there was very little chance of an increase in UK agriculture goods sent abroad.

"The upsides of this deal for British agriculture are very limited," he told peers on the international agreements committee.

"By and large, Australia is a massive net exporter in agricultural products and in food.

..."There are areas of liberalisation as a result of this deal but it doesn't really create many opportunities we can identify.

"But it does of course significantly liberalise over a period of year, completely liberalise agricultural goods from Australia into the UK, which poses a risk for UK farmers, so there's limited upside and potential significant downside."

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Like any trade deal, there are winners and losers.

British farmers can't compete with the economies of scale for Australian and American (and south American, Asian etc.) farmers.

Welsh mutton is significantly more expensive than New Zealand lamb - even if the latter is shipped half a world away. Ditto for Beef -- Ozzie ranches are huge -- At a sprawling 23,000 square kilometers (14,000 square miles), the Anna Creek Station in South Australia -- it's the same size as New Jersey