BY RYAN FLETCHER “


Moving food across borders, for example importing fresh fruit and vegetables from southern Europe during the UK’s cold winter months or fresh UK fish heading to the EU, is highly time sensitive.


Long delays due to imposition of customs controls and checks along UK/EU borders will result in millions of pounds of produce going bad in transporters.


The government’s no deal planning dossier, which was leaked in August, predicts severe delays at ports for six months, as well as fresh food shortages.


With shortages, come prices rises, which will exacerbated by the WTO’s mandatory import tariffs.


Government calculations predict average price increases of 10 per cent, though industry experts believe the figure could be higher.


Agreeing trade deals with non-EU countries has been mooted as a possible solution to keeping food prices down, however this also brings considerable risks,


especially when dealing with the US.


“Of course we want to make sure the same [American] standards are used,” Zippy Duvall, head of the American Farm Bureau told the BBC in August.


Duvall is the latest in a line of American leaders in agriculture – backed by the no deal supporting Trump administration – who have insisted that American farm practices banned in the EU be permitted in any future UK-US trade deal.


Such a scenario could see genetically engineered food, chicken dipped in chlorine and hormone raised beef being sold in British shops.


This would increase trade barriers with the EU, which would place heavier restrictions on UK agricultural exports, and encourage UK farmers to adopt similar methods to compete with cheap US imports. Food security academic and Unite member Charlie Clutterbuck commented, “It’s not just chlorinated chicken or beef injected with growth hormones, it is white blood cells in milk and cheap corn. The risk


17 uniteWORKS Autumn 2019


The impact on working class communities across the country will be huge, especially so for those that depend on a rural economy intertwined with EU food standards, markets and labour


Bev Clarkson


Unite national officer


” GEDDON


is that standards would be driven down (in Britain) by cheap imports and that it would be a free for all.”


Unite national officer for food, drink and agriculture, Bev Clarkson, said the government is in danger of “crippling” the UK’s food industry through its no deal stance.


“Boris Johnson’s government is pushing the UK ever closer to an economic precipice with its hard Brexit threats. The impact on working class communities across the country will be huge, especially so for those that depend on a rural economy intertwined with EU food standards, markets and labour,” Clarkson said.


“It is no exaggeration to say that crashing out of the EU will cripple the UK’s food, drink and agriculture sector. Pursuing no deal is an option no responsible government would entertain.


“Boris Johnson must act in the national interest, take no deal off the table and strike a deal that projects jobs and living standards.”


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