07-17-2016, 10:24 PM
EU subsidies via direct farm payments make up 54% of British farmers’ income. And the EU takes 62% of British agricultural exports.
We plough the fields and scarper | The Economist
The issue adds to the problems facing Andrea Leadsom, the surprise appointment to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), as she struggles with the looming end of EU farming subsidies. Farmers and conservationists are tussling over what form any new subsidy should take, while the new secretary of state will have to explain her views on subsidies having previously rejected them. The National Farmers Union (NFU) told the Guardian: “We will obviously be looking for guarantees from government that the support given to our farmers is on a par with that given to farmers in the EU, who will still be our principal competitors.”
Actually, it's against the law for EU member states (we'd still be an EU member state until the end of the two-year process) to conduct bilateral trade negotiations with other member states or countries. There might be wriggle room here. If the UK and the EU enter into negotiations in good faith they could authorise those talks. But there's not that much good faith about and EU leaders are irritated by Britain's constant demands for a bespoke single market, its vote to leave and the continued uncertainty around its negotiating position. The thing to remember when imagining all this is that we have very little leverage, except for when we trigger Article 50.
Everything you need to know about Theresa May’s Brexit nightmare in five minutes
So what happens when we fall out the EU at the end of the Article 50 process? It's Year Zero. We will have no trade deals, no financial arrangements with the EU or anyone else. We're like a man being thrown out of a plane into the sea with no lifejacket.
Everything you need to know about Theresa May’s Brexit nightmare in five minutes