UK drinks trade body urges government to go for "divorce" settlement in Brexit talks
The UK’s wine trade body is calling for the Government to go all out Brexit talks to avoid what it describes as the “worst possible outcome” – a no deal Brexit.
Formal talks kicked off yesterday between the UK’s Brexit secretary David Davis and the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier, and the Wine and Spirits Trade Association(WSTA) is urging the government to go for a full negotiated “divorce” settlement.
The trade association, which represents over 300 of the country’s wine and spirit businesses said its members needed sufficient time to prepare their businesses for a post EU trading environment.
The WSTA warned that Brexit could result in the contraction of trade with Europe which will mean that the UK will need to look to increase its non EU trading partners, especially through new bilateral free deals with third countries, including improved terms that could only be agreed once the UK has left the customs union.
“It is essential that the UK secures transitional measures allowing sufficient time for the necessary systems to be introduced and properly tested,” said the WSTA’s chief executive Miles Beale.
“Ideally a transition period would allow the UK to agree a Free Trade Agreement with the EU and then to make good progress on other bilateral FTAs with our major trading partners. Such a transition would give businesses time to prepare fully for a post-EU trading environment.”
The UK is currently the world’s second largest importer of wine by both volume and value. The most important issue for UK wine businesses and the 277,000 UK jobs that the industry supports, directly and indirectly, is for the UK to remain central to world wine trading post-Brexit.
“Failure to agree terms resulting in a cliff-edge ‘no deal’ Brexit would be the worst possible outcome and totally unacceptable. This would inevitably lead to disruption to trade flows in the short term and significant uncertainty for business in the medium term - until trade deals with the EU and the UK’s other major trading partners could be agreed.
"EU politicians have a responsibility to our industry to deliver a Brexit that in no way disrupts the long established trading patterns on which we all rely.” It’s vitally important too that Government does all it can to minimise the impact of a cliff edge Brexit, including joining the World Wine Trade Group and negotiating bilateral agreements with Australian and the US to replace current EU wine agreements with those countries."