UK keeps door open to cheap food

The UK food and farming industry has been frustrated again in its attempts to ensure that future food imports must meet the same standards required of its farmers.

In the House of Commons on Monday night, the government won a series of votes on potential amendments put forward by the House of Lords to its landmark Agriculture Bill, the effective replacement for the CAP in the UK.

The bill returns again to the House of Lords for further debate, but any changes now look unlikely before it is enshrined into UK law.

Amendments shot down

There were two main amendments tabled by the House of Lords which were likely to receive support from opposition MP’s and Tory rebels.

The first would have given more power to the recently appointed Trade and Agriculture Commission, set up by international trade secretary Liz Truss to advise government on trade policy.

The amendment, suggested by the Lords, would have permanently established this Commission. It would then have been required to report to Parliament on the safeguards necessary in each trade deal to ensure UK food safety, environment and animal welfare standards are being upheld.

But this amendment didn’t even get to a debate or vote on Monday night.

“There is nothing to stop it [The Trade and Agriculture Commission] being stood up again if it was felt that that would be helpful. There is absolutely no need to put this in the bill,” argued Defra Farm Minister Victoria Prentice.

Standards

The second amendment would have put it into law that agriculture and food products imported into the UK would have to meet domestic standards.

However, Minister Prentice, along with a number of Tory MPs highlighted concerns that having a series of conditions in place would make it difficult to secure new trade deals, and could jeopardise 19 existing EU deals that the UK wants to roll over.

She repeated government assurances that the UK will not be importing items such of hormone-treated beef or chlorine-washed chicken, and to change that policy would require legislation brought before Parliament.

“Government are firmly on the side of British farmers and high standards. We will drive a hard bargain for access to our market” she said.

However, the suspicion remains among opposition MPs that government will eventually sell out UK farmers in trade deals.

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