World Grain - February 2021 - 6

FROM THE EDITOR
EDITORIAL STAFF

Brexit deal not perfect,
but much needed

rain producers and processors in
the United Kingdom and European Union received a last-minute Christmas gift when the UK and EU
agreed to a trade deal on Dec. 24, just days
before Brexit (Britain's official exit from
the EU) was scheduled to go into effect.

The agreement was a welcome development for the EU and UK, which
have been among the hardest hit by
the nearly year-long COVID-19 pandemic. While this part of the world
has endured far worse disasters - the
Bubonic Plague of the late 1300s and
World War I and II in the first half of
the 20th century come to mind - this
current pandemic coupled with a nodeal Brexit would have further crippled a regional economy that already
is depressed, mostly due to lockdown
measures enacted to slow the spread
of the virus, which as of mid-January
had killed more than 2 million people worldwide.
Without a trade deal, UK grain producers and flour millers would have
been effectively cut off from their biggest export market due to high tariffs.
The deal will enable British farm
products such as wheat and barley
to remain competitive in the EU, the
destination for more than 60% of the
UK's agricultural exports.
A no-deal Brexit would have seriously damaged the UK's flour milling sector, with more than 600,000
tonnes of flour exports (15% of its total production) subject to tariffs of up
to 50%. Losing this trade would have
meant job losses and threatened the
closure of some mills, according to
Alex Waugh, director general of UK
Flour Millers, formerly known as the
6

WG_Feb21.indb 6

National Association of British and
Irish Flour Millers (nabim).
Ireland, which is a member of the EU
(Northern Ireland is part of the UK), had
started stockpiling flour and sourcing alternative supplies from Europe in case
an agreement wasn't reached. It was
estimated that in a no-deal Brexit, the
price of a loaf of bread in Ireland would
have risen by up to 15 cents per loaf.
It's not a perfect deal by any stretch
of the imagination, particularly for the
Irish baking sector, which is facing
difficulties as flour imports from the
UK, necessary because of the shortage of domestic milling capacity, will
in some cases now attract tariffs of up
to 50%. The reason for this is the flour
used for much of the bread baked in
Ireland is shipped from the UK but includes Canadian wheat, which means
that it is subject to non-EU tariffs.
There's also the reality that despite
the deal, consumers of various products will face higher prices and possibly some shortages for a period as
supply chains are rebuilt and new customs requirements established.
Still, the two sides deserve credit for
finding at least some common ground
in a world that seems
to have lost the ability
to execute the giveand-take art of compromise. One must
look no further than
the US government to
see the dysfunction that results from
two sides adamantly refusing to accept
anything but absolute victory.
Arvin Donley
Editor

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2/12/2021 8:30:27 AM

World Grain - February 2021

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