Environment secretary George Eustice has said that British dairy farmers will not be affected by potential tariffs of up to 35% in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
Eustice was speaking on the Andrew Marr show on BBC One yesterday (November 15) and said that the UK will be applying its own set of tariffs on imported EU goods.
He said:
“The UK currently imports a lot of dairy products, predominantly from Denmark but some from Ireland as well and some from France.
In a non-negotiated outcome, what would happen is companies like Arla, which is a big Danish company and sells brands like Lurpak which is manufactured in Denmark, would have to relocate that production to the UK.
When asked if tariffs would “wipe out” the dairy industry, Eustice refused to accept that fact and stated that the government has done a lot of work on tariffs and the impact of them.
“The reality is that if you look at agricultural sectors there is one sector that would be affected in particular and that is the sheep sector.
“We are a significant net exporter of lamb with 48% of our lamb being exported.
In every other sector we are basically a net importer with barely being the only other one where we are a net exporter.
“On those sectors where we are a net importer it is obviously open to us to apply tariffs and we will on some of those imported goods to ensure that we make space for British producers,” he concluded.
