Responding to the announcement that agreement in principle has been reached on a trade deal between the UK and New Zealand, a Scottish Government spokesperson said:
“Any deal with New Zealand will not remotely offset the damage to our economy caused by Brexit. Even the UK Government’s own scoping assessment published last year said a deal with New Zealand would result in zero increase in GDP and that the agriculture and semi-processed food sectors would be likely to lose out.
“Aside from the economic arguments of seeking new deals with markets thousands of miles away while putting up barriers to trade with our European neighbours, the climate change implications of long distance trade must also be considered.
“The Scottish Government was not involved in the negotiations which led to this agreement in principle (AIP). The recent AIP with Australia has caused great concern among Scotland’s farmers and crofters and we said at the time this would set a precedent for New Zealand and called on the UK Government to protect Scotland’s food producers.
“Nevertheless, it has committed to remove tariffs on meat and dairy products from New Zealand and it must now bring forward proposals to protect these sectors in Scotland and mitigate the cumulative impacts of the deals.
“It is vital the devolved administrations are involved in the next stage of the New Zealand process so that we can ensure Scotland’s interests are protected.”
