The Environment Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee has asked the new government to re-consider its ‘disappointing’ response to its report on the impact of the Australian free trade agreement (FTA) on the UK food and agriculture sector.
EFRA chair, Sir Robert Goodwill said the government, with its previous Prime Minister and Ministerial team, had not addressed the report’s central recommendation – that it commits to core standards on issues such as food safety and animal welfare for produce entering the UK.
While the Australia deal has minimal relevance to the pig sector regarding pork imports, its measures on protecting UK food safety and animal welfare standards are likely to set a template for future trade deals, with the likes of the US, which will potentially pose challenges for the UK pork sector.
In a letter to the new Secretaries of State for the Departments for International Trade (DIT), Kemi Badenoch Defra, Ranil Jayawardena, Sir Robert said the previous government response had been to restate that the Australia FTA would not lower the standards that UK producers have to meet.
However, the response did not engage with the central concern of UK farmers and producers about food and drink entering the UK which were made to lower standards and therefore cheaper, thus disadvantaging UK producers, Sir Robert said.
This was particularly concerning, he added, because a similar approach to future trade agreements with larger food exporting countries – such as Brazil and the USA – could have a much greater impact on the UK than the Australia FTA.
Sir Robert asked the Secretaries of State to review and update the government response to the EFRA Committee report in order to reassure UK farmers and food producers that their concerns are being listened to.
Specifically, Sir Robert asked the government to:
- Commit in the Agriculture, Food and Drink Exports Council trade strategy to increase UK food and drinks exports by at least £278m – the expected loss to the sector from the Australia FTA
- Expand the government’s agri-food Trade Advisory Group to provide it with more expertise on animal welfare, health and the environment; and
- Provide additional resources to the Trade and Agriculture Commission to produce advice on trade agreements.
The EFRA Chair encouraged the two Secretaries of State to work closely together on future trade deals, with DEFRA alerting DIT at an early stage of differences in regulatory or farming practices that could be harmful to the UK’s competitiveness.