Former Northern Ireland MEP Jim Nicholson has voiced his concern about the potential for a trade deal between the UK and EU being agreed by the end of 2020.Speaking at an event organised by the Pedigree Cattle Trust in Portadown, the veteran NI politician warned farmers that while both sides need to reach an agreement, he was not certain it will be done. He pointed to the substantial 80-seat Tory majority in the UK parliament, which gives Prime Minister Boris Johnson the scope to go against the will of some of his MPs and walk away from trade negotiations.
Former Northern Ireland MEP Jim Nicholson has voiced his concern about the potential for a trade deal between the UK and EU being agreed by the end of 2020.
Speaking at an event organised by the Pedigree Cattle Trust in Portadown, the veteran NI politician warned farmers that while both sides need to reach an agreement, he was not certain it will be done. He pointed to the substantial 80-seat Tory majority in the UK parliament, which gives Prime Minister Boris Johnson the scope to go against the will of some of his MPs and walk away from trade negotiations.
Hopefully common sense will prevail
“Fishing will be the major, major problem,” suggested Nicholson, who also said that he did not know “who to believe” when it comes to the NI-Ireland protocol negotiated as part of the UK withdrawal agreement. With Boris Johnson and NI secretary of state Brandon Lewis suggesting that there will be no border checks between Britain and NI, yet the EU saying something completely different, it leaves NI businesses facing uncertain times. “If there is more bureaucracy and red tape for NI business importing from Britain, it will leave us at a major disadvantage. Hopefully common sense will prevail,” he said.
Standards
On future standards, Nicholson said he was fearful that Britain will diverge from the EU, and change laws on the likes of genetically modified organisms (GMO). The greater the divergence, the greater the level of checks required on goods coming from Britain to NI. “The EU is fixated that NI could become a back door route into the EU for the likes of chlorinated chicken. They are also fixated by high environmental standards, and in NI we will have to produce to those standards without the knowledge around the support payments we are going to get,” he said.
However, he warned farmers not to continually say “No” to policy changes related to new environmental controls. “If we say ‘No’ it will play out very badly for the industry. We have an obligation to hand over the land in at least as good a state as we found it,” said Nicholson.
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