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While the UK is set to exit the EU after March 2019, there is a growing possibility that farmers could remain wedded to CAP rules for a number of years after that, even to the point where the UK has to implement new CAP arrangements due to come in after 2020.
Back in September, British prime minister Theresa May floated the idea in her speech in Florence of a two-year transition period to help businesses avoid a cliff-edge departure from the European Union.
Given the recent impasse over the Irish border, and the increasingly tight timeframe to get a trade deal done (effectively October 2018), that transition period could become more relevant, and perhaps even longer than two years.
It had been thought that during this period it might be possible to start a process of tweaking CAP arrangements to reflect a future UK agricultural policy.
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