British farmers are looking with envy at the terms of the EU’s deal unveiled on Tuesday. Brussels agreed to a beef quota rising to 30,600 metric tons after 10 years, with a smaller quota of around 25,000 tons for sheep and goat meat.
By contrast, the U.K. agreed to a beef quota starting at 35,000 tons in the first year, rising to 110,000 tons by year 10, with sheep meat starting at 25,000 tons and growing to 75,000 tons. After year 10, the U.K. quotas are removed and tariffs then fall to zero, though temporary safeguards can apply if imports surge.
Obviously this is all the fault of Keith Starmer and his Labour government.
Who would have thought that the EU with a population of 450 million and a hugely experienced negotiating team could do a better deal than the UK with 70-odd million and a team lead by the idiot Johnson could achieve?
That was desperate to sign a deal - any deal - to prove that their beloved Brexit was the right thing to have done. I’m sure the Australian negotiators didn’t take that into consideration at all during their discussions.
Indeed - in fact famously, having agreed to significant concessions over dinner the Aussies, recognising a good deal when they saw it, created an official document for him to sign then and there. Fortune favours the prepared mind, as they say - unless it has been prepared by too much food and wine, as Johnson’s clearly was.
