Biosecurity clampdown at Dover delayed pending SPS agreement<\/a><\/p>\nInsiders say this will lead to a cliff-edge scenario where Britain will have to immediately align with EU rules on animal and plant products in order to remove trade barriers.<\/p>\n
Josh Woolliscroft, head of external affairs at trade association CropLife UK, said: \u201cThis essentially means that none of the British growing conditions or our agricultural policy positions would be reflected in chemical decision-making.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose decisions will be made in Brussels, where we won\u2019t have a vote.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark Buckingham, Bayer Crop Science\u2019s head of public affairs for the UK and Ireland, said that \u201cwell over half\u201d of the autumn herbicide portfolio used by British farmers could be hit if the deal goes ahead on the government\u2019s timetable.<\/p>\n
Flufenacet, for instance, will be banned across the EU by 10 December 2026, while cinmethylin-based replacements are still awaiting registration and unlikely to be available by 2027.<\/p>\n
Metribuzin has already gone, and bixlozone remains pending.<\/p>\n
Blackgrass control threat<\/p>\n
Dave Bench, chief executive of CropLife UK, said: \u201cFlufenacet and cinmethylin make up a big proportion of the herbicide market for blackgrass control in cereals and would disappear in a cliff-edge implementation scenario.<\/p>\n
\u201cRothamsted has estimated that if there was no herbicide control available for blackgrass, it could cost farmers up to \u00a31bn a year and reduce total yield by around a quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s possibly the biggest single effect of a cliff-edge deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cCinmethylin would likely return at some point. But that is only one use and many hundreds will be affected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fungicides are also at risk, with isoflucypram (used in Bayer\u2019s Iblon) and pydiflumetofen (in Syngenta\u2019s Miravis) still pending EU approval.<\/p>\n
Glyphosate pre-harvest use could be restricted if the UK fully accepts EU rules.<\/p>\n
Mr Buckingham said UK growers would be at a significant disadvantage if they faced the same regulations as EU growers, but without any direct payments.<\/p>\n
Backtrack unlikely<\/p>\n
Despite reports this week that the EU will demand billions of pounds from the UK as the price of this reset deal, Mr Woolliscroft did not believe the government would backtrack.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is their big offer going into the next election,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think from the UK side, they are willing to accept what would be for British growers the worst-case scenario. And that\u2019s likely what the EU is going to ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n
A government spokesman said ministers were focused on delivering an SPS deal that would cut costs and reduce red tape.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we will not provide a running commentary on ongoing talks.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, he indicated that the UK will have some scope to help shape EU decision-making, with its views taken into account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain\u2019s arable farmers, already battered by extreme weather, dwindling farm support and lacklustre prices, face another hammer blow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-566664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115539931584402312","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}