The director of Teagasc Gerry Boyle writing in Business Ireland described the scenario of a WTO tariff cliff in 2019 that can only be avoided if the UK and EU act very promptly to put in place transitional trade arrangements.
The prospect of a de facto default reset to WTO trading conditions is one of the many Brexit headaches facing all sectors that trade within the current EU markets with the UK.
As Professor Boyle says, farming and food businesses need to plan ahead over a period of years , and need a modicum of certainty to make sound decisions.
Certainty on future trading relationships and tariffs etc is the one factor that has been truly thrown into disarray with the whole Brexit debate.
Hard or soft, clean or dirty, red white and blue or some other combination of colours, the uncertainty principle is currently in the ascendant!
