Ewing highlights Brexit deal ‘damage’ to salmon farming

Ewing, a consistent champion of Scottish salmon farming and shellfish production, raised serious concerns at the failure of the Westminster Government to ensure tariff-free access to the European market for Scottish seafood exports, and warned that non-tariff barriers like customs delays at ports could be catastrophic for an industry that relies on frictionless passage across borders.

Explicit linkage

In the letter addressed to Michael Gove, the UK Government’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Ewing wrote: “The Withdrawal Agreement reached by the UK Government risks being very damaging to Scotland’s aquaculture and wider seafood interests, with its explicit linkage of trade and access to UK waters in direct contradiction to what was promised in the UK Government’s White Paper on Fisheries.

“Despite the Prime Minister’s claims, a direct link between seafood trade and access to waters has been conceded, allowing for exclusion of fisheries and aquaculture from tariff-free access through a temporary customs union under the ‘backstop’, if a fisheries agreement acceptable to the EU cannot be achieved. Worse still, aquaculture has been included in this linkage despite having no connection to access to waters or quota.

“Salmon farming alone was the UK’s largest food export in 2017. Its inclusion is profoundly disturbing, risking the imposition of tariffs, which will inevitably increase the cost of exports, and perhaps even more importantly the spectre of non-tariff barriers hangs over Scottish seafood exports, which absolutely rely on frictionless passage across borders.

“We have repeatedly stressed the devastating impact any customs delay would have, particularly for fresh or live seafood. Under the deal, Scottish seafood exporters to the EU also face the risk of significant, and devastating, new trade barriers. As well as tariffs, in relation to the farmed salmon industry alone it is estimated that an extra 45,000 export health certificates will need to be issued per annum, at significant cost to both businesses and public authorities.”

Scottish interests ‘expendable’ 

Ewing, whose ministerial responsibilities include both aquaculture and fisheries, added: “The Withdrawal Agreement has the potential to set one vital Scottish sector against another, and shows a complete disregard for these key Scottish interests.

“That this deal should have been brokered without any form of meaningful engagement with the Scottish Government can only lead to the conclusion that, in the Prime Minister and UK Government’s eyes, Scottish seafood interests are expendable.”

Border checks

Last month the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation (SSPO) warned that a tie-up between aquaculture and fishing quotas in the proposed Brexit deal could harm the farmed sector and must be scrapped.

At the time SSPO chief executive Julie Hesketh-Laird made it clear that at negotiated settlement was preferable to a “no-deal” Brexit.

She added: “However, the political heads of agreement for future trade talks does raise serious questions. By coupling aquaculture with future catch fish quotas, this document raises the prospect of tariffs being imposed on exports of farmed fish if there is no agreement on North Sea white fish quotas. It also raises the prospect of border checks for fresh salmon exiting the UK bound for our biggest export market – the EU.

Tariff-free supply

“We accept that this would only happen if the proposed agreement is implemented unamended and if there is no mutually acceptable deal on fisheries being reached. But it is included in the text around the ‘backstop’ and, as such, remains a risk. It is a risk the farmed sector is determined to avoid.

“We are clear: there must be no linkage between access for EU vessels to UK waters and the tariff-free supply of seafood products to EU markets.”

Gove is today expected to announce that British ministers will be legally obliged to seek a better deal for the fishing industry in negotiations with other EU states after Brexit.

He will amend legislation going through parliament, which officials say will “enshrine [the UK government’s] commitment to secure a fairer share of fishing opportunities for UK fishermen”.