As the UK-Australia trade deal is now in force, not everyone seems to be totally informed. Unlike Australia, the UK is retaining its tariffs, quotas, and product-specific safeguards on Australian agricultural products for many years.
Regarding fruit and vegetable products, tariffs on strawberries and pears will be eliminated over four years, while bananas, apples, and grapes will take eight years.
Tariffs on vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, cucumber, beans, asparagus, aubergines, celery, courgettes, sweetcorn, fennel, squash, pumpkin, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, even truffles, will take four years to be removed. To put this in context, the UK imported almost three million tons of vegetables last year and 3.6 million tons of fruit.
These trade restrictions are mentioned to dispel the myth that the trade deal is bad for British Farmers. That isn’t the case. British farmers have been protected more than any other industry. This slow removal of tariffs is instead bad for UK consumers, who will have to wait years to see any benefits, in the form of lower prices, from this trade deal.
Source: thecritic.co.uk