Trade Bill and Food Standards

 

Thank you for contacting me about the Trade Bill and food standards. 
 
I appreciate your strength of feeling on this issue, but I want to reassure you that the Trade Bill will not undermine food standards. 
 
The powers within the Trade Bill cannot be used to implement new free trade agreements with countries such as the US, Australia or New Zealand. Instead, the Bill can only be used to roll-over the free trade agreements that the UK has been party to through its EU membership. 
 
My Ministerial colleagues have no intention whatsoever of lowering standards in transitioned trade agreements, as the very purpose of these agreements is to replicate as close as possible the effects of commitments in EU agreements. You will be pleased to hear that none of the 20 continuity agreements signed have resulted in standards being lowered. 
 
Although future trade agreements are outside the scope of the Trade Bill, the Government has made a clear and absolute commitment to uphold the UK’s high animal welfare, environmental, food safety and food import standards in any future free trade agreement. Ministers do not intend to compromise the UK’s domestic welfare production standards either – I welcome the creation of the Trade and Agriculture Commission (TAC) to advise the Secretary of State on protecting these standards while capitalising on trading opportunities. 
 
I am glad that the Government has amended the Trade Bill to put the TAC on a statutory footing and confirmed that the body will produce a report – to be laid in Parliament at the start of each 21-day scrutiny period – on the impact on animal welfare and agriculture arising from each new free trade deal. 
 
The Government is committed to engaging with Parliament throughout the negotiation of future trade agreements; it has clearly demonstrated this during discussions on the Japan trade agreement and ahead of negotiations with the United States, Australia and New Zealand. The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 more broadly provides the legislative framework by which international agreements are scrutinised by Parliament. Under the Act, the Government must lay any agreement before Parliament for 21 sitting days and provide explanation of the treaty’s provisions and the reasons for seeking ratification. If Parliament is not willing to support a particular agreement, it can resolve against ratification and indefinitely delay any primary or secondary legislation which would implement an agreement.   
 
Without exception, all animal products imported into the UK under existing or future free trade agreements from all trading partners, including the EU and others, will have to meet our stringent food safety standards, as they do now. The UK’s independent food regulators will continue making sure that all food imports into the UK comply with those high standards. 
 
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.