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Sp has a clear message for the government on free trade negotiations with the UK: don’t give a cheese in exchange for access to your fish market.
The Center Party will not allow more agricultural imports from the UK in exchange for better access to the country’s fish market.
Terje Pedersen / NTB.
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– The Center Party believes that Norway should not give anything to the UK in the field of agriculture in a new free trade agreement. We don’t have a cheese to give away, says the business committee leader at the Storting, Geir Pollestad, to NTB.
So it draws lines with former fisheries minister Jan Henry T. Olsen, who gave his word that he shouldn’t give away a single fish to the EU when the Brundtland government negotiated a fisheries deal in 1994.
The Norwegian Farmers Association has expressed concern that the government will open up the Norwegian market for more British agricultural products in exchange for selling more seafood the other way around.
The Center Party doesn’t want any of that either.
– Any quota on various agricultural products for the UK must be taken from the quotas that Norway has already given to the EU. When the EU gets smaller, it is entirely appropriate for them to transfer part of their quotas to export agricultural products to the UK, says Pollestad.
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The chairman of the Storting’s business committee, Geir Pollestad, calls for Norwegian agriculture to be protected in the negotiations for a free trade agreement with the UK.
Terje Pedersen / NTB
Nybø: – Give and take
Earlier this week, the Farmers Association wrote a letter to Trade and Industry Minister Iselin Nybø (V), requesting an urgent meeting on the matter. The background was that it had occurred to them that a direct link was being made between market access for seafood and agriculture in the negotiations.
Subsequently, the Minister of Commerce and Industry rejected it. But he also admitted that agriculture is a sensitive area in the negotiations.
– Negotiations are give and take. And then there is something that is important to us and something that is important to the British. But it is also the case in negotiations, especially as one approaches the end, that one must hold the cards close to the chest. I cannot go out into the media now and say what we are willing to give and what we are not, Nybø told NTB on Wednesday.
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– naive
The new free trade agreement must be in place because the UK has left the EU and needs a new framework on how trade with Norway will take place.
Norway had set October 9 as the deadline for reaching an agreement, but was unsuccessful. Now the talks continue overtime. Pollestad hopes the government will take the time it needs.
– There are many reasons to fear that the lack of progress in the negotiations between the EU and the UK could lead to delays in an agreement with Norway. The Center Party believes that it is more important that Norway get a good deal than that we have a deal ready before the new year, he says.
He also fears that Norway will be tempted to open up to fish more in Norwegian waters.
– It is also naive to believe that the UK will accept full free trade in seafood without at the same time gaining greater access to our fisheries resources, he says.
