The 15-member Trade and Agriculture Commission (TAC) published its recommendations for future UK trade policy at the start of March 2021.

In total, 22 recommendations were made, with a strong emphasis put on the need to ensure that current UK food production standards are maintained.

Crucially, the TAC was supportive of liberalising trade where imports meet the same standards expected of UK producers.

On the face of it, that is a reasonable position to take

In other words, where a country is producing to high animal welfare, environmental and food safety standards, it should be able to trade into the UK without any tariffs or volume quotas.

On the face of it, that is a reasonable position to take, and given the current UK government is currently forging a new role for itself in the world under the tagline “Global Britain”, it is a position bound to find favour among government Ministers.

Yet things move on very quickly, and in the last two weeks we have got sight of what English farmers will be expected to do in a new Sustainable Farming Incentive Scheme, and the contribution that all farmers must make towards net zero carbon targets.

In reality, a country looking to do trade deals with the UK will put their best foot forward

Will importing countries be expected to do the same? Who is going to inspect these standards elsewhere?

In reality, a country looking to do trade deals with the UK will put their best foot forward. Take the example of Uruguayan beef. Their cattle are predominantly Angus and Hereford bred, outside on grass 12 months of the year, and slaughtered in facilities broadly equivalent to the UK. Standards will not stop imports.

A liberal trade policy leaves the front door wide open to imports

It is a point alluded to by Minister Poots in a statement following a meeting with the chair of the TAC Tim Smith, where the Minister emphasised the need to maintain quotas on imports to protect home producers. He is right. A liberal trade policy leaves the front door wide open to imports.

Included within the TAC is a senior representative from every UK farming union. With the TAC given a role in scrutinising future trade deals, the farmer representatives need to remember they are there to safeguard farmer interests, not sign off on a grand Tory plan.

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UK unions compromise on future food import standards

There is a reason why trade agreements take years to negotiate