Brexit: Sheep farmers 'will get help' if UK-EU trade talks fail

More than 90% of Welsh lamb exports are destined for EU markets

Sheep farmers will receive financial help if no trade deal is reached with the European Union, the UK's environment secretary has said.

George Eustice said sheep farming would need financial support "because it exports quite a lot to the EU".

The Welsh Government's Brexit minister said the Treasury "need to commit to that being available" because funding promises "have already been broken".

UK chief negotiator Lord Frost is continuing post-Brexit trade talks.

The UK left the EU in January but entered a transition period until the end of 2020 in which the trading rules remained broadly the same.

• 'Welsh farmers too reliant on exporting to the EU'

• 'Deal to be done' as UK-EU trade talks resume

If a deal is not reached, from 1 January border checks and taxes will be introduced for goods travelling between the UK and the EU.

With more than 90% of Welsh lamb exports destined for EU markets, Mr Eustice said the sector "perhaps more than any other sector...is likely by to be impacted" if there is no trade deal.

"We have already developed potential interventions to support the sector in the short term should that be needed," he said.

"It's important to realise as well that demand globally is currently very high - lamb prices are some 15% to 20% higher than they were last year.

"So, we will keep a very close eye on this sector, and we'll be ready to intervene if needed, but it's not clear at this stage that we would need to."

Speaking on the BBC Politics Wales programme, Montgomeryshire's Conservative MP Craig Williams said: "Everyone around that [UK Government] cabinet table... has assured me that the cheque book will open instantly, regulations will be looked at and support will be put in place [for the Welsh lamb sector].

"We don't want a no deal. Sheep farmers, especially, don't want a no deal.

"But let nobody the other side of the English Channel be in any doubt, we'll have it if they're not going to treat us like an independent sovereign nation, and we'll cope."

Ports

Earlier in the week, First Minister Mark Drakeford said plans for Holyhead Port show "just how shambolic" UK ministers have been on Brexit.

Mr Drakeford said the UK government was "in a scramble to resolve" issues around the Anglesey port as it entered talks to purchase a transport cafe near Holyhead for a customs site.

Responding to the first minister's comments, Mr Eustice said a phased approach to introducing checks was always the intention.

He added: "That meant that we didn't need to have all of that infrastructure in place at Holyhead."

But some customs checks will start on 1 January 2021 and therefore, until the site is operational, checks for lorries arriving at Holyhead Port will initially take place in Warrington.

As well as the joint site with the UK government in Holyhead, the Welsh Government is looking at two potential sites for food safety, and animal and plant health checks in the south west of Wales to deal with lorries arriving at Pembroke and Fishguard ports.

HMRC intends to conduct customs checks at the ports themselves in the new year.

The food and plant checks will start in July but the Welsh Government's Counsel General Jeremy Miles said: "We think there's a serious risk, both in north Wales and in the south west, that the arrangements won't be ready for July of next year because of the delay in getting the sites selected and those are choices the UK Government have made very recently."

Mr Miles also said he expected "disruption at the ports" following the transition period "because of new frictions at the border".

He added: "We have plans to provide stacking for traffic as it approaches Holyhead."

Dublin politician and Fine Gael European affairs spokesman Neale Richmond said the Irish capital's port has "now doubled in size" and would be ready for 1 January.

But he told BBC Politics Wales: "What we are seeing though, unfortunately, is a lot of exporters from Ireland... they are looking more and more at the direct shipping links.

"So, you would have seen last week the announcement of the new link from Wexford to Dunkirk.

"We're seeing new sailings to Santander, to Lisbon, to Zeebrugge and we hope to see a new one to Le Havre too because people cannot countenance possible delays, be it getting in and out of Holyhead or getting in and out of Dover."