Anger as EU gets a 'better trade deal' with Australia than Brexit Britain

[JuliaMaesa]

Apparently with Brexit being a done deal (hence not posting this in the Brexit forum) we aren't allowed to criticise it anymore.

Who'd have thought that the bigger trading block would have more buying power to negotiate a better trade deal.

Shocker isn't it?!

Well, I'm not too bothered about this. Especially as now we've left the EU the NHS is getting an extra £350 million a week. A
Oh, hang on...🫤

Yep and we've taken back control of our borders and everything! Who needs trade deals.

If you love the EU so much why don't you go and live there?

Oh, you can't because of idiots who believed Farrage and Johnson.

Awww come on we should rejoin...what's a few billion? We have no one in our town to sell the Big Issue now the Romanians have fled.

If you are worried about farmers, then links from your link tell us that EU farmers, in particular farmers in France and Ireland, are not happy with the EU's recent trade deals. The articles point to a cumulative effect with the recent EU-Mercosur trade deal - which gives a larger allocation of beef to South American bloc countries - in addition to the deal with Australia. The Mercosur trade deal was provisionally implemented behind Macron's back earlier this month and despite the European Parliament voting for a review:

2 March 2026
Ursula von der Leyen's decision to provisionally implement the EU-Mercosur trade deal has unleashed a wave of outrage in Paris.

Von der Leyen announced [ ] that the EU would provisionally implement its trade deal with the South American Mercosur bloc, even after the European Parliament voted last month to send the accord for review by the Court of Justice of the European Union...

Two French officials confirmed to POLITICO that the government in Paris was not informed in advance of von der Leyen's decision to force through a deal that France has been fighting against for years, amid an overwhelming backlash from the country's political parties, influential farmers and public opinion;

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-mercosur-ursula-von-der-leyen-france/

Jan 2026
Thousands of Irish farmers protest against EU-Mercosur trade deal

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/10/thousands-of-irish-farmers-protest-against-eu-mercosur-trade-deal

@Clavinova sounds like the UK government would really like the same kind of deal with South America that the EU has https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-trade-minister-says-uk-mercosur-trade-deal-a-no-brainer/

It's Project Fear becoming Project Reality.

We already know that the current Labour government doesn't like farmers.

The op's link was written from a farming perspective - clearly then, most UK farmers would not be in favour of a Mercosur trade deal.

The farming perspective seems to be that no matter how many billions are paid to them every year, it's never enough. One wonders just how much would we have to give them before they finally stopped complaining.

I've been told that on hilltops, on quiet moonless nights, UK farmers can still hear the sound of Aussie farmers' laughter following the Liz Truss deal in 2021.👻😱

Then presumably you are not bothered how they feel about the UK-Australia trade deal either. As long as other UK sectors have benefitted.

As usual for Mnet, the 1st post nails it.

Were they complaining about not getting enough billions in subsidies then, too?

To be fair in real terms spending on the NHS has increased by more than £400m per week since Brexit. It turns out that throwing money at the NHS makes even less impact than throwing it at Europe - where there were EU Bureaucrats milking the system, now there are NHS Bureucrats.

Nothing to do with the private medical companies taking a massive wodge of NHS money at all, then?

The subsidies aren't subsidising the farmers, they're subsidising the food production so that it can be sold at less than the true cost of producing it.

No doubt you will be pleased to hear that the EU have proposed reducing the CAP budget for 2028-2034 - resulting in a near 30% reduction in real terms.

The money goes to the farmers, does it not? How is that not "subsidising the farmers"?

Let's be real here. The farmers get billions every year in subsidies because they knowingly sell their products to their customers (supermarkets etc) at what they say is below production cost. Yet rather than raising their prices to their customers, they bitch that no matter how many billions they get from the public purse, it's not enough. Is there something special about farming that means that the normal rules of capitalism doesn't apply to them?

Sure, if they raise their prices to their customers (supermarkets etc) then the price we pay at the supermarket will go up but whether we pay that cost directly to the supermarkets or via subsidies, we're paying for it either way. What do the farmers want? To get enough subsidies that they can give their products to their customers for free?

Good.

Although of course, Starmer and Reeves have both promised cheaper food from the EU with their reset. If the reset involves us sending billions of pounds to the EU and the British public are not noticing a benefit in the shops, that is not going to improve Labour's chances in the next election.

Are you suggesting that the reason farmers get so much in subsidies is to keep food prices artificially low?

Rather inconveniently, that keeps happening.

I thought you were suggesting that.