Boris Johnson took aim at his own government’s tariffs on imports of food that is not produced domestically, saying their removal could ease the UK’s cost-of-living crisis. But even his officials say otherwise.
“Why do we have a tariff of 93 pence a kilo on Turkish olive oil?” Johnson said at a speech in Blackpool, northern England, days after surviving a confidence vote in his ruling Conservative Party. “Why do we have a tariff on bananas?”
Britain’s existing tariff on Turkish olive oil is a feature of the UK-Turkey free trade agreement signed by Johnson in December 2020, a roll-over deal from when Britain left the European Union. The UK has since said it wants to renegotiate the agreement to expand its scope.
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Yet Johnson’s own government has said cutting tariffs on food imports would have minimal impact on household finances. It’s a “tiny, tiny proportion, 0.4% on the cost of living,” Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said in April.
In his speech Thursday, Johnson said he wants to strike a balance between protecting local farmers from cut-price and substandard food made overseas, while also helping consumers.
