Brexit food tariff cut is ‘ludicrous utopianism’: Clegg

Lowering or removing tariffs would work against the national interest and be opposed by both UK food and farming groups, and countries the UK would seek to forge new trade partnerships with, according to Liberal Democrat MP Nick Clegg.

Speaking at the Food and Drink Federation’s ‘Exiting the EU’ conference in London on Tuesday (November 1), Clegg revealed details of his recently-published paper on the impact of Brexit on the food and drink industry.

In the paper, he described the food and drink industry as the “bellwether” sector for the health of the British economy as a whole.

Clegg used the conference to give three reasons why he believed food tariffs would not be lowered after Brexit.

“Firstly, those tariffs are not just there to protect French or German farmers. They are there with the active, staunch support of the National Farmers’ Union and the farming communities in this country,” he said.

‘Leading proponent’

“We have been the leading proponent for many of these tariffs, in the name of our own agricultural sector, and have done so for decades. And it is naïve in the extreme to imagine that is suddenly going to change overnight.”

Clegg’s second reason was that it would be a “shockingly self-defeating” national interest move.

“Removing tariffs would mean throwing away all of our bargaining chips before the negotiations have even started,” he said.

“Access into European and British agricultural markets is one of the biggest prizes that many of the countries that we may negotiate with trade agreements in the future want.

“So, if we give them that prize before they even asked for it, they will have very little incentive to give us concessions on other sectors, such as financial or legal services – sectors that we are highly competitive in, and where they are blocking access.”

‘Panoply of trade-offs’

The final reason concerned the “panoply of trade-offs” the government would need to make in the Brexit process.

“While I can understand those advocating for the removal on European tariffs on things like sugar cane, just imagine the reaction of the British sugar beet farmers, and those who use sugar beet to produce and process sugar, to the prospect the UK market will be flooded with low-cost sugar cane produced outside the EU?” he said.

“Similarly, does anyone in this room seriously think that we are going to get a positive response when the UK government asks the Spanish government for a special deal for, say, car manufacturers in the north-east of England, while at the same time absolutely hammering Spanish exports of oranges to Britain, because we are opening up other markets? I think not.”

Clegg dismissed the idea that the UK would decimate its farming community, damage its negotiating capacity with third counties and diminish its ability to stand up for other non-agricultural sectors as “not only far-fetched, but breathtakingly naïve”.

In his paper, Clegg detailed a series of other food and drink industry shocks resulting from a ‘hard’ Brexit.

He also set out a list of questions that the food and drink industry should be asking the government.