By James Mottershead, chair, NFU poultry board
It won’t come as a shock to hear that one of the biggest things across desks at the NFU at the moment is trade, considering what Free Trade Agreements with various countries and trading blocs could look like and what impact they could have on British agriculture.
The one at the forefront of everyone’s minds is a trade deal with the US. There is the obvious argument, which the NFU is making clearly, about differences in production standards, but there is also the issue of cumulative affect. We know that whatever agreement is struck, whatever access America is granted to our market, other countries will want the same.
I think about the Mercosur region with the likes of Brazil, a huge exporter of agri-products, and what they would be pushing for if the Americans are given greater access to our market, especially if that access comes from a weakening of our SPS rules.
With an aggressive US administration and a US negotiating team which is undoubtably pushing for greater market access for their products, this is understandably a nervous time for our sector. And it’s exactly why we need to keep cool heads and continue to calmy press the point that while we are open to fair trade negotiations, safeguarding our own domestic producers must be a priority.
The government has repeatedly assured the agriculture sector that it will not undermine our high production standards in pursuit of a deal with the US, and we can only hope it stands by this commitment at the negotiating table.
On another note, I am writing this from the NFU’s Westminster office, having just spent the day with our fantastic Poultry Industry Programme (PIP) group. We had a tour of Parliament before meeting up with the EFRA Select Committee Chair Alistair Carmichael for a really interesting discussion about the work his committee is looking into on supply chain fairness, including within the egg sector.
It’s great for the PIP to see our lobbying work in action. What started off as a way of getting more young people involved in the NFU, has over the years turned into a fantastic programme which helps build a greater understanding of our sector and the NFU’s role in representing our members to policy-makers, as well as opening doors to further opportunities and creating a strong network of friends and colleagues.
We have seen close to 90 members go through the programme, myself included. It has achieved what it was created to do and much more, and I hope those on this visit to Westminster found it enlightening and engaging.