Subsidies for farmers will continue to paid at the current EU level until 2022
Published in BBC, on Jan 03rd, 2019,
Theresa May’s Brexit deal gives farmers certainty about the future, Environment Secretary Michael Gove will say.
In a speech to the Oxford Farming Conference, Mr Gove will argue the agreement struck last year will ensure a smooth transition period for agriculture after the UK leaves the EU.
He will also say Brexit will provide farmers with a “world of opportunity”.
Mr Gove will pledge investment in robotics, artificial intelligence and other innovation, to boost yields.
In his speech, the environment secretary will promise to “continue to demonstrate the case for, and put in place the policies that underpin, long-term investment in British agriculture and the rural economy”.
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He will say: “A week can be a long time in politics, but farming requires the patience and foresight to see beyond the immediate and scan the far horizon.
“It is a quintessentially long-term business, one that benefits from as much certainty as possible about the future.”
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The UK is scheduled to leave the EU on 29 March, with MPs due to vote in the Commons in mid-January on the prime minister’s withdrawal bill.
Urging MPs to support the prime minister’s deal, Mr Gove will acknowledge it “isn’t perfect”.
But he will highlight the fact that it ensures that farmers’ current access to the EU is unaffected during the 21-month transition period that will take effect if the deal is approved.
Mr Gove will also say he believes the deal will allow UK exporters to maintain continuous tariff-free and quota-free access to EU markets.
He will add, “it allows us largely to diverge from EU regulation after the transition, to leave the Common Agricultural Policy and end all mandatory payments to the EU”.
The government has guaranteed to pay subsidies to farmers at current EU levels until 2022.
After that there will be a “transitional period” in England, with an increasing link between funds and maintaining “public goods”, such as access to the countryside and planting meadows.
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Food standards
The National Farmers Union has long highlighted fears about the potential disruption of Brexit, and delays at borders if a deal is not reached.
It is also calling for legislation to ensure the same standards are applied to imported food as home-grown produce, after Brexit.
“At the moment we’ve had a lot of warm words on standards,” the NFU’s president Minette Batters told BBC Radio 4’s Today.
“We’ve had a commitment from various ministers saying that we would not want a trade deal that brought food in produced to lower standards but the real challenge is how.
“Agriculture’s always the last chapter in any trade deal….so we feel it’s really important. We don’t want anybody lying down in front of a bus, as they’ve suggested. We want it put in writing.”
Campaigners are calling on Mr Gove to set up an independent regulator to ensure minimum standards to protect water, soil, wildlife and animal welfare are maintained after Brexit.
The Nature Friendly Farming Network is warning that long-term food security will be at risk unless “ambitious” guidelines for the industry are set out in the Agriculture Bill, which outlines the policy for the industry after Brexit.