A CHILL WIND BLOWING FROM ACROSS THE POND

No matter how much we might like to ‘keep it local’, we cannot avoid events elsewhere in the world impacting on our lives, writes Simon Evans.  A Foot and Mouth scare in Germany has an effect on our own food security; and this week’s inauguration of a new US president is likely to have an even more profound impact on Norfolk’s farming community.

The UK currently doesn’t import much food from the US, largely because of a sizeable divergence in food production standards.  UK – and EU – consumers have stubbornly resisted the introduction of chlorinated chicken, hormone-fed beef and so on, which means that American farmers have thus far had very limited access to the British market.

But how much longer will we be able to hold out?  How long will it be before we are forced to accede to Trump’s strongarm tactics in imposing a one-sided trade deal on us, especially given our vulnerable position standing alone, outside the collective protection of the EU?

The new president’s threat of punitive tariffs – which would threaten the government’s whole growth-based programme – raises big questions.  Boris Johnson was bounced into doing trade deals with New Zealand and Australia which have damaged UK agriculture; will Keir Starmer be forced to accept a similar – or worse – deal with the US to avoid wider, damaging tariffs?

Starmer has stated that he doesn’t see the UK facing a binary choice between closer alignment with the EU or with the US.  But Trump is a dealmaker, and he understands the strength of ‘divide and conquer’; like all predators, he can sense vulnerable prey on the periphery of the pack.  The promised ‘reset’ with the EU cannot come a moment too soon; in fact, it may already be too late.

It has to be said that there is a clear contrast between Donald Trump’s attitude to farming and that of our own government.  He has come out as very much pro-agriculture, promising deregulation, subsidies and protectionism; even if you can’t stand the man, there is no denying that his support for American farmers is very much stronger than that shown by our own politicians for British farmers.

Of course, Trump has been president for only a few days, and we have seen before that the reality doesn’t always follow the initial rhetoric.  But he was elected on a clear ‘America First’ message, and this time around he has the nous and the experience to drive through his policies.

The devil will be in the detail, but the direction of travel is clear: the American people’s choice of leader could well result in a chill wind (and I don’t just mean storm Eowyn) blowing through our local farming communities.

Photo: Library of Congress