The UK meat industry employs around 97,000 people and is worth an estimated £8.2 billion a year to the UK, including about £1.6 billion in exports. / This report examines the impact of the first three months of trading with the EU as a third country.

Even if the European Union and the United Kingdom conclude a highly ambitious partnership covering all areas agreed in the Political Declaration by the end of 2020, the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU acquis, the internal market and the Customs Union, at the end of the transition period will inevitably create barriers to trade and cross-border exchanges that do not exist today.

If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, the government will not be able to support all affected industries. Against a backdrop of steeply deteriorating public finances, the government will be forced into impossible choices about which businesses and industries to save. Without clear principles, the fight over subsidies will be swamped by politics.