Food price fall could save families £305 a year once we’re free from single market says former Environment Secretary
The ex-Cabinet Minister said hard-pressed families could save £305 per year when Britain has its own seat at World Trade Organisation negotiations
FAMILIES will save £305 a year on cheaper food if Britain quits the customs union, a former Environment Secretary declared yesterday.
Ex Cabinet Minister Owen Paterson said households could take advantage of “massive gains” if the UK breaks free from the stranglehold of the EU’s single market.
The leading Brexiteer said hard-pressed families would benefit from “cheaper food at world prices” when Britain gets its own seat at the World Trade Organisation and can strike its own deals.
At the launch of a pro Brexit free trade pressure group yesterday, he said: “There are massive gains for every single citizen if we leave the customs union and we escape the common external tariff.
“Every one of us eats three times a day every citizen in this country would be better off if we had cheaper food at world prices.
“Every household would be about £305 better off each year.”
Experts from Economists for Free Trade – a group of 15 economists including six former Government advisers and academics – yesterday called on Theresa May to prepare to scrap all tariffs on imports when the UK quits the EU.
Professor Patrick Minford from Cardiff Business School – who debunked the Treasury’s Project Fear doom-mongering over Brexit - said the move would slash prices for shoppers by eight per cent and boost the economy by four per cent.
Chancellor Philip Hammond is said to oppose ditching tariffs or leaving the customs union because of the economic consequences.
But Prof Minford branded him “economically illiterate” just like George Osborne before him, saying Britain could easily cope with the economic upheaval.
He said Treasury coffers could see a boost of up to seven per cent with the right deal.
He added: “There are great gains to be made from eliminating the protection that the EU exerts over food, through the common agricultural policy and the associated tariffs, and also manufacturing.
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It came as former Defra Permanent Secretary Bronwyn Hill declared there were “golden opportunities” for her department post Brexit.
The retired mandarin told how she regularly “banged her head against the wall” trying to get 27 other countries to agree to reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy in Europe.