From the BBC:
The head of France's main farmers' union has warned that a no-deal Brexit could have a severe impact on French agricultural exports.
Christiane Lambert of the FNSEA union said French wine and spirits producers would be hit hardest, as their sector had a €1.3bn (£1.1bn; $1.5bn) annual surplus in trade with the UK. Dairy goods and fruit are also major French exports. A UK no-deal exit from the EU would bring new customs checks and rules.
Ms Lambert told broadcaster France Info that "the British are very fond of Camembert and Brie... Brie exported dairy products would come back to Europe and push prices down. Theapple sector would also be badly hit - France is the biggest supplier of apples to the UK - and then there are [French] vegetables and cereals."
She warned that the UK would revert to "third country" status with a no-deal Brexit, "and it could restrict imports - that's our fear".
So how is France preparing for a no-deal Brexit?
On Thursday France announced a contingency plan for a no-deal scenario, including nearly 600 extra customs inspectors to staff ports and airports. Calais - the main hub for trade with the UK - has started expanding its facilities to cope with possible delays and traffic queues.
That's called getting your retaliation in first!
Here's an idea: the EU and the UK enter into an agreement saying that there will be
a) mutual recognition of standards (seeing as UK regulations on Day One will be identical to EU standards and will only diverge slowly over time), and
b) no imposition of quotas or tariffs on trade between the EU and the UK.
Everyone's a winner! Over to you, France/EU!
Monday, 21 January 2019
Nobody move or the French farmers get hurt!
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7 comments:
It's bollocks. Why would we place tariff and non tariff barriers on Brie and Champagne? Why?
L, given the stupidity of the UK govt, why wouldn't we?
Tell France we'll smooth the way for her exports to us, on condition she stops the flow of unauthorised economic migrants from there to the UK.
Two problems:
1. WTO rules say that everyone gets 'most favoured nation' access unless there's a formal free trade agreement (I think). Why this is I have no idea. Prevents unilateral free trade - a very useful option IMHO, why shouldn't countries be allowed to do it. But I suppose you could just say 0% on French Brie, any country is welcome to import it from France then export it to the UK, a complete waste of time.
2. The £39bn divorce bill could be used as a blocker on no-deal free trade. Then if the UK gvmt is really maliciously incompetent they could impose the max allowed WTO tariff of ~20% (can't find exact figure but think it's around that). I'm hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Who knows what terrible decisions will come out of parliament devoid of YPP members...
M. WTO doesn't prevent unilateral free trade as i understand it.
Macron recently said that no deal was not really an option for the British because "70% of their supermarket supplies comes from continental Europe" He's wrong BTW, it's 30% of food for which there are gov.uk stats, so to average up to 70% supermarket supplies for the odd pair of socks or battery looks suspect.
Yes you can negotiate a comprehensive FTA with a single country whilst WTO for everyone else. What you can't do is say WTO with America plus a special 0% on cars for them only.
OTOH, good spot. Macron is clearly a raving lunatic:
"I can tell you very solemnly that in the framework of this future relationship, the interests of French fishing will be defended and we will have to negotiate a transition period with them anyway because the British can't afford not to have a plane taking off or landing in their country and 70% of their supermarket supplies comes from continental Europe."
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