Cows feed on hay in Bill Sorg's dairy farm in Hastings, Minnesota, on October 3, 2018. - US President Donald Trump has visited Minnesota twice in less than six months. Political strategists are parachuting in from Washington. The writing is on the wall: this is a critical election battleground state. It is also a state where a much heralded Democratic "blue wave" could crest, or peter out, in next month's midterms. Minnesota, nicknamed the "Land of 10,000 Lakes," has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since Richard Nixon, in 1972. But in 2016, Trump came close to snatching the state from Hillary Clinton. (Photo by Kerem YUCEL / AFP) / TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY Elodie CUZIN "Minnesota, at heart of election battle for US Congress" (Photo credit should read KEREM YUCEL/AFP/Getty Images)
Britain's beef exports could face tariffs of at least 40% if the UK reverted to World Trade Organization rules © AFP

Michael Gove, the environment secretary, will seek to reassure British farmers in a speech to be delivered on Tuesday that the government will act to protect them as Brexit looms, including if no deal can be reached for an orderly departure from Europe.

Mr Gove, who will make the remarks at the National Farmers’ Union annual conference in Birmingham, is also expected to reiterate earlier pledges that Brexit will not cause the UK to lower its food standards in any way.

“We have been clear that we will not lower our standards in pursuit of trade deals and that we will use the tools we have at our disposal — tariffs, quotas and legislation — to make sure standards are protected and you are not left at a competitive disadvantage,” Mr Gove is to say to the assembled farmers.

If the UK left the EU without a deal on March 29 then new export tariffs and border checks would apply to agricultural and food products. Lamb and beef exports, for example, could face export tariffs of at least 40 per cent if the UK reverted to World Trade Organization rules under a no-deal exit.

The government is in the process of working on a package of tariffs that would apply in a no-deal scenario, and is expected to unveil them later this month.

Mr Gove is expected to lay out in his speech what the government is doing to mitigate the impact on the food and agriculture sector of leaving without a deal, including “the significant impact on upland farmers and the trade in sheep meat and beef”.

Farmers’ trade associations have raised concern over import and export tariffs for food and animals, as well as how any post-Brexit trade deals would affect British farmers.

Many are alarmed by the prospect of trade deals with countries such as the US, whose larger-scale, lower-cost producers could drive down prices and profits for UK farmers.

The NFU has also warned that British farmers, who under EU rules adhere to elevated standards for environmental and animal welfare, would suffer if they were undercut by imports from countries without such safeguards.

The spectre of hormone-fed beef or chlorinated chicken being imported from the US has farmers worried and has prompted the NFU to call for legislation to ban such imports.

The UK’s £110bn-a-year agriculture and food sector is deeply integrated with Europe, relying on the bloc not only for agricultural subsidies under the common agricultural policy but also for labour and trade.

The EU receives about 60 per cent of UK food exports, while about 70 per cent of UK food imports come from the bloc.

Britain is not self-sufficient in food production, producing about 60 per cent of what it needs to feed itself and relying on imports for the rest, according to Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs figures.

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