\n The Welsh Liberal Democrats have highlighted “continued red tape” affecting meat exports to the European Union, particularly lamb.\n<\/p>\n
\n During a parliamentary debate, Mr Chadwick said that producers in rural Wales are still being hit by extra costs and delays when exporting to key European markets including Germany and the Netherlands.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Chadwick said: “Welsh farmers were promised that Brexit would make exporting easier.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Instead, Conservative governments, cheered on by Reform UK, delivered more paperwork, higher costs and fewer markets.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Farmers in rural Wales are still paying the price for ideological decisions taken in Westminster with little understanding of how agriculture actually works.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Although the UK\u2013EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement ensures Welsh lamb enters the EU free from tariffs and quotas, it introduced new non-tariff barriers.\n<\/p>\n
\n These include export health certificates, veterinary sign-off, and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) checks.\n<\/p>\n
\n Such requirements did not apply when the UK was a member of the EU Single Market and Customs Union.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Welsh Liberal Democrats argue these new rules have placed a particular burden on smaller producers, who often lack the resources to manage the increased bureaucracy.\n<\/p>\n
\n While the UK Government has announced steps towards improved cooperation with the EU on agricultural trade, there is still no fully operational SPS agreement in place.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Chadwick said: “Warm words and future negotiations are not enough.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The Government needs to stop dragging its feet, finish the job on an SPS agreement with the EU, and give Welsh farmers back the ability to sell their world-class produce without unnecessary red tape.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Welsh food and drink exports were valued at \u00a3813 million in 2023, with around 75 per cent destined for EU countries.\n<\/p>\n
\n The EU remains the destination for roughly a third of Welsh lamb exports, 90 per cent of Welsh beef exports, and the vast majority of Welsh dairy exports.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Chadwick also raised concerns about repeated delays to the UK\u2019s own border control system and said UK farmers face a more demanding inspection regime than their European counterparts.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Welsh Liberal Democrats have called on the UK Government to urgently secure a fully implemented SPS agreement with the EU, developed in close collaboration with farmers and food producers.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Chadwick said such an agreement is vital to protect rural livelihoods and restore confidence in export markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Welsh Liberal Democrats have highlighted “continued red tape” affecting meat exports to the European Union, particularly lamb.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683944,"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-683943","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\/115863882502955041","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683943","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=683943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}