Two years will not be enough to come to a post-Brexit trade agreement between the European Union and the UK, Paolo De Castro, Italian MEP, has said.

Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference on Thursday, De Castro, who is also first vice-chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, said that trade negotiations are usually very long.

A trade deal could be agreed within the so-called transition period, but he said that it will have to be ratified by the European Parliament and by the more than 35 national and regional parliaments.

“Frankly speaking I’m not sure that two years will be sufficient to come to agreement.”

He did say that both sides are not starting from scratch on an agreement, but that there would be hurdles ahead.

In his role in parliament, he said he followed the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations and the debate in society at the time.

“I learned that the sanitary and phytosanitary rules might become a particularly sensitive issue for consumers and the public opinion.”

With the end of common rules, De Castro said that any single new rule adopted without coordination between the UK and the EU has strong potential to affect trade negatively.

“In 2018, the most difficult and delicate part of the negotiations is going to start. In most of the negotiations I have done in my life, reaching an agreement seems impossible at the beginning.

“But let me say that at the end a compromise was always found”.

Brexit not the be-all and end-all

In the past three months De Castro said that he noticed that Brexit dominates British news.

“Maybe this is normal but let me tell you something that could help you to put this in this perspective. In my country, Italy, and in other European Union countries Brexit is not front page news.

“Some days it’s not news at all, there are much more pressing news issues for Italy and other countries.”

EU budget

De Castro also touched on the EU Budget in his speech at the conference, highlighting that the UK is a net contributor to the European Union budget.

“The [UK] departure could create a gap of about €10.2bn.

“In order to fill the gap the EU is working on three main ideas; increasing the contribution of the remaining 27 EU member states, decreasing the expenditure and the expanding of the EU’s own financial resources.

“The most likely solution will be a combination of the three options.”

However, if a reduction of expenditure is a part of the solution, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will likely come under pressure as a result, he said.

“The CAP could face a decrease in available resources also depending on what happens in other chapters of the budget.

“The share of the CAP EU budget has decreased over time, but it is still more than 35% of total expenditure.”

Direct payments alone account for more than a quarter of the EU budget.

“In order to minimise the possible cut, some propose the national co-financing of the direct payment envelope, but this idea has not found support so far.

“So in the future the CAP could have a lower budget and this is an element of uncertainty but the EU seems to have a clear idea of the future of the CAP as a policy.”

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