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An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has warned Irish farmers to brace themselves for Brexit. Tariffs on Irish food exports to the UK might be imposed, he conceded, predicting probable differences in regulations and production standards.
The Taoiseach said that he now believes that Irish product will be displaced from the British market “as the UK starts to do trade deals with third parties and other countries around the world”.
Addressing the Government’s Agri-Food Strategy to 2030 on Wednesday, the Taoiseach told delegates that no matter the outcome of Brexit “our relationship with the UK is going to be different”.
The comments mark a significant breakaway from Government policy.
Until now, the Government line was that those kinds of outcomes were worst-case scenarios, and downplayed as unlikely to happen.
The Taoiseach’s comments were made as the EU and UK edged towards a Brexit deal on Wednesday.
Potential agreement
As details of a potential agreement were seeping out from London and Brussels on Wednesday, it was becoming clear that it will involve Northern Ireland aligning with the EU on customs and regulatory standards.
The rest of the UK, separated by an “east-west” trade wall, as opposed to a political border, would be free to do trade deals completely independent of the EU.
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