August 19, 2019

UK must accept US food standards in trade deal, says farm chief

The United Kingdom should accept US food standards if the country is to reach a future trade deal with the United States, said Zippy Duvall, head of the American Farm Bureau.

He noted that fears over the US producers' practices of washing chicken in chlorine and using genetically modified (GM) crops were not "science-based."

The use of chlorine to kill germs is considered a controversial practice that has been banned in the EU. Critics are concerned that treating meat with the chemical at the end may lead to a compromise in hygiene standards in other aspects of production.

Duvall said he wanted to talk about US food standards to address concerns in the UK. Comparing the practice of using chlorine on poultry meat with water treatment in the US, he told the BBC that "there is no scientific basis that says that washing poultry with a chlorine wash - just to be safe of whatever pathogens might be on that chicken as it was prepared for the market - should be taken away."

He added: "If there was something wrong with it, our federal inspection systems would not be allowing us to use that."

In another development this month, John Bolton, the US national security adviser, suggested that the country could make post-Brexit trade agreements with the US on a "sector-by-sector basis" to expedite the process.

But the possibility of such a deal brought up worries that the UK may not properly adhere to standards as dictated by EU law.

There are also concerns that a US-UK agreement could expose British farmers to unfavourable competition from bigger US farms with lower production costs. 

However, Duvall argued that agriculture should be one of the components in a future deal. "To have a trade treaty and not discuss agriculture would be turning your back on rural America and that's where a big part of our population lives," he remarked.

He also said the British public should be allowed to purchase cheaper US produce.

- BBC