Food prices - The Institute for Fiscal Studies says abolishing tariffs after Brexit will have limited impact on UK households

The new report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which you can read here, says that if we abolish tariffs after Brexit, prices will fall by 1.2% at most. And that this will make no dfference as there has been an increase of at least 2% following the devaluation of the pound. And that it also has to be offset against higher trade costs. 

The IFS point out that if we choose to leave the Customs Union with the EU after Brexit this would increase costs of trading with the Union. But they also make the point that it would give the UK the freedom to choose what tariffs to impose on imported goods like food. Advocates for free trade have repeatedly welcomed this potential new freedom, claiming that this would allow cheap food to flow into the UK and that this would be good for those on low incomes. 

Kath Dalmeny, CEO of Sustain said: “If you’re one of the 8.4 million people in the UK struggling to afford enough to eat, then the ‘cheap food’ promised from new international trade deals sounds attractive. But let’s be clear – cheap food comes at a cost, and somebody has to pay. Our Sustain alliance members are telling us that a race to accept cheap food through new international trade deals could result in more food poisoning, dodgy food processing methods to clear up faeces on meat, profligate use of antibiotics in farming, filthy working conditions, low wages, poor animal welfare and thousands more British farmers going out of business.”

“We need Government to do a sensible balancing act that makes food affordable, with a range of policies that give a coherent framework, including maintaining good food standards and improving incomes so that everyone can afford to eat well.”

If you’d like to read the case against cheap food imports, click here