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LONDON – The administration of Donald Trump said that the UK should abandon the "unjustified" food and agricultural standards before it can sign a free trade agreement with the United States after Brexit.
The US Trade Representative sent a letter to the US Congress on Tuesday officially announcing President Trump's intention to negotiate a free trade agreement with the UK once he left the EU.
The letter states that any trade agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union must respect the US Trade Priorities and Trade Responsibility Act, which requires the "reduction or elimination of [of] unjustified sanitary or phytosanitary restrictions "and" other unjustified technical barriers to trade ".
Last month, BI had pointed out that under US food regulations, producers were allowed to use certain amounts of foreign matter, such as worms, rat hair and mold in a range of products. food sold to consumers.
The letter will alarm MPs, health activists and animal welfare groups who are concerned that the United States is asking the United Kingdom to accept food products of inferior quality to what it currently is. as an EU Member State.
Jo Stevens, a Labor MP and supporter of the People's Vote campaign, told BI: "Article 102 of the US Trade Priorities and Accountability Act can not be more clear – US negotiators have aiming to reduce food safety standards at the US level and remove them from geographical indicators, she added, "This is what the US wants to say when it says it wants to remove non-tariff barriers and that Liam Fox never denies it. Instead, it publishes a standard "refusal of refusal" that does not solve any of the key issues. "British consumers do not want this, have not voted and will not support it, and it is shameful that Brexit serves as a cover for reducing food standards and consumer protection."
Many US officials, including Trump himself, have criticized the EU's rules on food hygiene.
Wilbur Ross, Trump's trade secretary, said last October that the abandonment of stringent European standards in areas such as food hygiene and agriculture would be an "essential element" of any post-Brexit free trade agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States.
British Secretary of Commerce Fox has repeatedly denied his desire to "reduce" or "compromise" British food standards.
Addressing representatives of the agricultural sector on Wednesday, the minister said: "Many reports, especially on social networks, have recently been reported that my ministry was considering lowering food and agricultural standards during the negotiating post-Brexit free trade agreements.
"Well, today, I am here in person and let me tell you categorically that these reports are false."
However, Fox did not explicitly exclude acceptance of US food standards in a post-Brexit trade agreement.
He said in November that he had no objection to British consumers eating food products currently banned by the EU, such as chicken washed with chlorine, after the departure of the Great Britain. Britain.
