The UK farming sector can “shoulder no more pain” on behalf of other parts of the economy, the NFU has warned, amid fears further concessions could be made in trade talks with the US.
Speaking after an extraordinary meeting convened by the NFU on Monday, which comprised of elected farmer and grower representatives from across food producing sectors, the union said any further agrifood access to the UK market to US exporters would lead to “serious impacts” on the farming sector’s viability.
The UK and US agreed to a “breakthrough deal” on 8 May, allowing for a cut in President Trump’s so-called Liberation Day tariffs for UK cars (down to 10%) and a zero-rate tariff (down from 10%) for aerospace parts. Talks on a reduction of 50% tariffs on UK steel imports to 25% are ongoing.
In return, the UK granted tariff-free access for 13,000 tonnes of hormone-free US beef and 1.4 billion litres of US ethanol – a move that has put the UK’s bioethanol and associated sectors such as CO2 gas supply under significant pressure, with the UK’s two main producers of the fuel now in crisis talks with the government, having warned they may have to close their processing plants.
Access for US imports came into force on 30 June.
But with the US having also voiced interest in growing exports of other agrifood products, such as pork and poultry – in return for reducing or removing the baseline 10% tariffs on UK exports that still remain – the NFU said any “further agricultural concessions would cripple an already hard-pressed farming and growing sector which had already done its bit on trade with Washington”.
A key concern centred on how US agrifood items produced using methods illegal here – which also failed to meet the UK’s high animal welfare, environmental and food safety standards – would potentially enter the UK market, it added.
At the time of the US trade deal, the NFU had “recognised that this was a necessary burden to bear to protect the wider UK economy, but warned the agricultural sector could not shoulder any more as negotiations continued”, it said.
Read more: Will UK producers benefit from trade deal with the US?
“Now, the NFU is calling for a commitment that agriculture will not be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations to reduce the remaining 10% tariffs and is asking the government to be prepared to walk away rather than risk our domestic food and farming sector.”
It was “understandable that the UK government wants to eliminate the 10% tariffs on all goods going to the US, but we have to ask – what is the cost?” said NFU president Tom Bradshaw.
‘Nothing more to give’
“The US has made it crystal clear that they want greater access to our market for their agricultural produce, and it is not afraid to throw its weight around to get what it wants. But the UK agriculture sector has already done its bit, paying with access to our beef and ethanol markets to reduce tariffs on cars, aluminium and steel. We have nothing more to give.”
He added: “It’s worth noting that our government has upheld its side of the deal announced in May, with legislation now in place to allow this additional access for American imports of beef and ethanol. Yet the US is dragging its feet to uphold its side of the bargain with no sign of the promised access to the US beef market.
“No one has been able to agree a deal which removes these 10% tariffs. We cannot continue to barter away critical sectors such as food production in pursuit of tariff reductions which may never materialise and that simply take us back to where we were before ‘Liberation Day’.”
The UK government had to continue to protect “our most sensitive farming sectors and to safeguard our high welfare, environmental and food safety standards”, Bradshaw urged.
“It has to continue to do so by taking further agricultural concessions off the negotiating table, or we run the serious risk of crippling our country’s ability to produce its own food and undermining our food production values,” he added.
“And if push comes to shove and the US doesn’t accept this, I hope our government would prioritise its own farming sector – the foundation of our nation’s food security – over any further deal with the US, even if it means accepting the 10% tariffs.”
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