NFU Cymru has responded to the House of Commons’ rejection of the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal at the meaningful vote stage.

“The Prime Minister has spoken of opening up a dialogue with representatives from other political parties in order to try and find a way forward. The next few days will be critical, and we will continue to monitor developments very closely. However, time is extremely short and as we head toward our scheduled departure from the EU at the end of March, my worst fear is that this drift and paralysis will see us sleep-walking into a ‘No-deal’ Brexit.

“For NFU Cymru a ‘No-deal’ scenario would be completely unacceptable. Under ‘No deal’ we would see very significant WTO tariff rates applied to our exports, pricing us out of our nearest and most valuable export market straight away. In addition to that, as a third country, we would face significant regulatory barriers when it comes to exporting to the EU27, further eroding our competitive position.”