London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Farmers warn post-Brexit trade deal with Australia could hit UK agriculture

Farmers warn post-Brexit trade deal with Australia could hit UK agriculture

NFU says British cattle and sheep farmers will lose out if Australian producers are given tariff-free access
Farmers are warning of “damage” to UK agriculture if Australian beef and lamb producers are granted tariff-free access to the UK as part of the first major post-Brexit trade deal.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) assembled agricultural leaders from all four devolved nations on Tuesday afternoon to voice their concerns amid reports of a split in the cabinet over whether to approve a wide-ranging free trade deal with Australia.

The trade secretary, Liz Truss, is racing to conclude negotiations ahead of the G7 summit, which the UK is hosting in Cornwall in June. The Australian deal is considered crucial, as it would mark the first free trade agreement negotiated since Brexit that was not a rollover of existing agreements with EU trade partners.

UK farmers fear soaring imports of cheaply produced Australian beef, lamb and sugar, which they say would drive down the price of food produced to a higher standard, and at a higher cost, in Britain. They are warning of implications for animal welfare and environmental standards. Sheep and beef farmers in more remote parts of Scotland and Wales are considered most at risk.

“I cannot the state the damage that I feel it would do,” said Minette Batters, president of the NFU, describing beef, lamb – and sugar – as “sensitive areas of trade”.

Launching the negotiations last year, the government published a mandate in which it said the UK remained “committed to upholding our high health, environmental, labour, food safety and animal welfare standards”.

Farmers say so-called “open access” would set a dangerous precedent for future trade deals with other countries.

“The conversations I have with the US, with the New Zealanders, with the Canadians, they would definitely be looking for the same,” said Batters. “If we give away our negotiating capital to Australia, which is the second-largest exporter of beef in the world, second to Brazil, the others would most definitely want it.”

The UK exported food and drink products worth £425m to Australia in 2020, while importing £384m worth of Australian food and drink, according to analysis of HMRC figures by the Food and Drink Federation (FDF). Wine accounted for the lion’s share of imports from Australia, worth £280m, with lamb and mutton imports worth £46m in second place.

Any increase in lamb imports would have a “very disruptive impact”, according to Phil Stocker, chief executive of the National Sheep Association, and could “lead to a price war and price reductions”.

He added: “Or it would mean suddenly having to look at more export markets for our lamb, which is produced to high standards, whilst bringing in lamb from the other side of the world, often produced in ways that our public wouldn’t allow in the UK.”

The Department for International Trade said: “Any deal we sign with Australia will include protections for the agriculture industry and will not undercut UK farmers or compromise our high standards. We will continue to work with the industry, keeping them involved throughout the process and helping it capture the full benefits of trade.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
×