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So Britain has voted to leave the EU. What happens next? First of all, Britain must notify the EU of its intention to leave. From there, a period of negotiation takes place which could last for up to two years. By the end of 2018, expect Britain to no longer be a member of the EU.
The free movement of people, goods, services and capital between two member states that share a land border will be no more. Well actually nobody knows what’s going to happen, because this has never happened before.
An opportunity for Ireland
While there have been many accession treaties negotiated, never has there been an exit treaty. What role will Ireland play? Ireland will favour an exit treaty that has as little as possible disruption caused to trade between Britain and Ireland. Beef, dairy, livestock, agribusiness, financial services, construction materials, tourism, the list goes on.
Ireland must turn this into an opportunity. Britain on one side, the EU on the other. Ireland in the middle negotiating between both sides. There is no doubt Ireland will need to negotiate a special deal with Britain that will be separate from an EU deal.
Questions on the future of agriculture
From a farming perspective and beef in particular, any chance of an all-island label of origin is out the window. Overnight, our beef has just got 10% dearer on British supermarket shelves. Will the beef price paid to our farmers take a similar drop? I’d certainly expect additional pressure on the price of beef, due to the referendum outcome.
How about the live trade of cattle and sheep to Northern Ireland? This trade is also going to be greatly affected by the sudden and large drop in the value of sterling. If sterling continues to drop in value, then the autumn weanling trade for west of Ireland weanlings could also take a massive hit.
Positives
Are there any positives to take from this result? One positive is that imports from Northern Ireland and Britain will be cheaper. If thinking about purchasing a new tractor, now may be a good time to look across the border. Visiting Britain for holidays or a premier league football match will be cheaper, but let’s face it, overall this is a bad result for Ireland and not the result we wanted.
If a market of 64 million people is about to leave the EU, perhaps it would be in Ireland’s interest to help introduce a new market of 75 million people to the EU.
Given recent developments in Britain and Turkey’s openness to importing Irish livestock, perhaps the time is now right to advance Turkey/EU accession negotiations.
Uncertainty around live exports after Brexit
Uncertainty the theme of the day at the Royal Highland Show
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