trade

Industry bodies have a launched a ‘shadow’ Trade and Agriculture Commission, after concerns were raised about the weakness of the official body set up by Government.

High tariffs on food and drink in the event of a no-deal Brexit will leave shoppers facing a £3.1bn bill, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has warned.

Abolishing direct payments completely will force farmers in England to quit the industry, Labour’s Shadow Defra Secretary Luke Pollard has warned.

Shadow Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner has admitted the Labour Party will find it ‘tough’ to change farm and trade policy while the Conservatives have such a big majority.

Labour’s Shadow Defra Secretary Luke Pollard has said he believes farmers are set to be ‘screwed over’ by future trade deals, and there is nothing Parliament can do to prevent it from happening.

During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in April, food kept flowing through the UK’s borders and into our supermarkets. But a second wave coupled with a no-deal Brexit has the potential to threaten our supply, says Efra select committee chair Neil Parish.

As a farmer’s son, and someone who married into a farming family, I understand the importance of a properly functioning internal UK market to the agriculture sector, says Paul Davies, leader of the Welsh Conservatives.

The Government has left businesses in a state of Brexit uncertainty for too long, and it still remains unclear how we will trade with the EU in less than 100 days. That is astonishing, says Sue Pritchard, chief executive of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission.

The House of Lords has voted to ban low-standard food imports under any future trade deals with a majority of 95.

Defra Secretary George Eustice has rejected calls from farming groups and MPs to put the Trade and Agriculture Commission on a statutory footing.