Speaking to GB News on Friday a spokeswoman for UK farmers said the UK have made a grave error of judgement in signing the post-Brexit deal that she claimed will send UK agriculture into free fall. It comes as the deal will see tariffs removed on UK goods including clothing, ships and bulldozers, and also on New Zealand goods including wine, honey and kiwi fruits. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the deal will cut costs for exporters and open up New Zealand’s job market to British professionals.
She said: “I think this is a bad deal and I think the Government needs to reconsider what they have done to local farmers!
“This ultimately opens the floodgates to allow sub-standard products onto our shelves.”
She added how the British consumer only has to look at New Zealand and the use of “pesticides and growth hormones” in its produce to distinguish the lower standards compared to Britain.
The farming spokeswoman explained how a key issue for Northern Ireland farmers and Great Britain farmers is the quality and the standards that is expected by industry bodies and the British public.
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But in a sobering warning she said how ultimately the product that will be coming from New Zealand as a result of this deal “will not match” these high standards.
She claimed the deal will therefore leave UK farmers at a “serious disadvantage”.
The spokeswoman was also clear that not only farmers but also our consumers will be impacted by the move, adding that supermarkets will also be hithard by the tumbling standards of food they provide following the deal.
She added how the deal marks “very serious times for our farming community.“
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The CPTPP is a trade bloc that includes Australasia, Canada and Japan as well as others which the UK is eyeing up as a potential source of post-Brexit possibilities.
International secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan She said the trade deal with New Zealand was currently worth £2.3bn a year but could increase by up to 30 percent by 2030.
She added how it also “affords opportunities in both directions for great sharing of produce” and British farmers should not be worried about the move.
Overall the trade between the two countries is less than 0.2%.
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