Brexit: Australia's zero-tariff demand to UK a 'huge threat' to Scottish agriculture

The Department for Agriculture and the Department for International Trade are locked in an internal battle over the trade deal – which would likely cause backlash among the farming industry in the UK.

It is understood that zero-tariff imports of Australian lamb and beef will hit rural Scottish and Welsh hill farms hardest.

READ MORE: Tory government's Internal Market Act is ‘deadly’ for Scots farming

The UK Government estimates a free trade deal with Australia would be worth about 0.01% of GDP over the next 15 years.

One insider opposed to the deal told the Financial Times the UK would be “signing off the slow death of British farming so Liz Truss can score a quick political point”.

The International Trade Secretary believes the UK’s deal with Australia should be on a similar “zero traffic, zero quota” basis as the deal with the EU.

Upon hearing about the row last night, Scotland’s deputy first minister John Swinney took to Twitter to attack the plans.

“This proposed deal is a huge threat to Scottish agriculture,” he said. “It will devastate the hill farming communities I represent and no self-respecting U.K. Government could sign this.”

The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford added: “This would be devastating for farming and crofting. I shudder to think of the impact on crofting communities”.

The president of the National Farmers’ Union has been among those criticising the UK Government’s approach to the deal.

Minette Batters argued farmers in the UK could not compete with their Australian counterparts and their “massive feedlots and soulless ranches” on a zero-tariff basis.

She wrote: “The Government says it wants to ‘level up’ Britain. But this can never be achieved by throwing our family farms under the bus.”

Brexiteer Tory peer Lord Hannan, meanwhile, accused the NFU of trying to preserve the status-quo, adding: “If we can’t do a proper trade deal even with our kinsmen Down Under, we might as well throw in the towel.”

The Department for International Trade said any deal with Australia will “not undercut UK farmers or compromise our high standards”.

Newly elected SNP MSP Jim Fairlie [below], who is experienced with farming, said: “These proposals pose a huge threat to Scottish agriculture, and I am deeply concerned about what this will mean for the future for my colleagues in the farming sector. 

"Our seafood industry has already been hit hard by Brexit and now Scottish farming is next to be sacrificed - and once again, it’s Scotland's key industries which will bear the brunt of a Tory Brexit people here didn’t vote for."

He added that tariff-free access to farming would "completely betray" promises made by Tory ministers. 

“Rather than safeguarding our world-class Scottish produce and protecting consumers, the UK Government is preparing to sell them out for a post-Brexit trade deal that could inflict untold damage on the industry.

"The Tories must urgently confirm that they will not throw our farmers under the bus by sacrificing world-class Scottish produce in pursuit of post-Brexit trade deals. Anything less than that would be simply unforgivable.” 

This morning Environment Secretary George Eustice would not be drawn on reports of a row with Cabinet colleague Truss over the deal.

“I’m not going to get into discussions that are going on in government about individual trade agreements,” Eustice said.

“In any discussion on any part of government policy, and trade agreements are no exception, there’s a discussion and there’s a consensus.

“At the moment there’s a very clear consensus in government that we want to do a trade agreement with countries like Australia, but obviously on the right terms.”

He added: “I have very good discussions with all of my Cabinet colleagues on all issues where we have got a shared agenda.”