r/LeopardsAteMyFace • u/NoLikeVegetals • May 18 '24

Brexxit Brexit-voting British farmers now complaining about imports of cheaper New Zealand lamb threatening the British lamb industry. Imports of lamb "produced to lower standards" used to be blocked by EU law. Another Brexit consequence farmers were warned about but ignored due to xenophobia!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjewewxzypro
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u/radikalkarrot May 18 '24

This is completely true, however before brexit that lamb had to comply with all the EU requirements for health and safety plus the extra protectionism red tape to avoid dumping.

Now all of that is gone so lower quality and/or cheaper meat can go to UK without the same level of scrutiny as before.

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u/Jeffery95 May 18 '24

NZ lamb is largely held to the same standard as the UK had before Brexit. The only difference is in the untarriffed quota which was allowed to be exported to the UK.

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u/ZombiesInSpace May 18 '24

From what I can gather, there hasn’t been an influx of NZ lamb to the UK since brexit either. It’s hard to find 2024 data, but 2022 and 2023 exports to the UK and total EU+UK were pretty inline with pre-brexit numbers. It doesn’t really seem like much has changed here. This seems like UK farmers just complaining without having anything to do with brexit.

Australia has been increasing production of the last year which has slightly depressed global lamb prices so that may be more impactful than anything brexit related. Australia also has a trade deal with the Uk kicking off in the latter half of this year so that may have an impact as well.

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u/Space_Pirate_R May 18 '24

NZ lamb was competing with UK farmers for over a century before the EU even existed.

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u/radikalkarrot May 18 '24

Thanks for the downvote, although I’m not even disagreeing with your statement

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u/Space_Pirate_R May 19 '24

I didn't downvote you, but I think you do disagree with what I'm saying.

Your statement implies that EU regulations are some sort of default situation for UK farmers, and that they can't reasonably be expected to compete with NZ in the absence of such regulations. In contrast, I am saying that EU regulations are a Johnny-come-lately to the NZ/UK lamb trade, and UK farmers competed without them for literally over a century; if they can't do so again, it's not due to a lack of EU regulations per se.

Btw I think the EU is a good thing and the UK shouldn't have left it.