Border farms could get ‘tax-free status’ post-Brexit

Border farms and businesses could be given ‘tax-free status’ to ease post-EU trade pressures, the UK’s Brexit Secretary has said.

Speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council in Europe on Thursday, David Davis said the status could apply to firms which were not eligible for “trusted trader status”.

Trusted trader status is a scheme the UK has suggested for larger firms to ease trade issues between the UK and the Republic.

Support

Davis said “tiny” and “very small” businesses needed to be given as much support as possible.

He added that the exemptions could be “quite large”.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Davis envisioned a future trade agreement between the UK and the European Union that would levy zero tariffs.

Davis also reportedly said that the British Parliament is unlikely to sign off the withdrawal deal unless it is “substantive”.

“The withdrawal agreement involves payments of up to £39 billion [€45 billion]. It’s a lot of money and Parliament is unlikely to sign off such a deal unless we can be pretty substantive what’s going to be there in the long run,” he purportedly said.

The news follows just two weeks after Theresa May visited the Jackson family’s dairy farm in Bangor, Co. Down.

Issues discussed at the family’s farmhouse kitchen table included: calendar farming; the Irish border; green subsidies; and access to foreign labour.