The re-introduced Agriculture Bill for the 2020 session of Parliament aims to enable the UK, or specifically England, on withdrawal from the Common Agricultural Policy on Brexit, to enact its own system of direct payments, replacing EU subsidies with payments of “public money for public goods”: such as environmental or animal welfare improvements.
While there is general support for the broad outline of “public money for public goods”, one early flashpoint in the Bill’s consideration has been real concern that similar environmental and animal welfare standards should be required for imports as are applied to UK farmers.
On 27 January 2020 the National Farmers Union and leaders of 62 other farming, environmental and animal welfare groups wrote to the Prime Minister expressing these concerns, and saying –
“You have pledged “not to in any way prejudice or jeopardise our standards of animal welfare or food hygiene”, and the Secretary of State for Defra recently promised to “defend our national interests and our values, including our high standards of animal welfare.” Along with your party’s manifesto commitment that, “in all of our trade negotiations, we will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards,” we are increasingly reassured that you are as committed as us to making the UK a world leader in food, farming and environmental standards.
However, we also recognise that this is a complex issue that goes beyond just the negotiating position of the UK government in any potential trade deals, and that there will be intense pressure on British negotiators to make significant concessions on this issue. Furthermore, as an independent member of the WTO the UK will also need to consider how it manages its trading relationships outside the terms of bilateral trade deals. It is vital that we have more than just verbal assurances to ensure our standards are properly safeguarded. In light of this, we urge you to take some specific actions we believe will enable you to ensure that the UK government can achieve its commitment to safeguard the standards of UK production, now and in the future:
The government should enshrine its manifesto commitment in law. The Agriculture Bill provides a good opportunity to do so for some key standards. We would be pleased to work with the government to draft legislative provisions that meet the government’s commitment to safeguard standards while allowing sufficient flexibility to conduct meaningful trade negotiations.”
For further information on our reading of this and other Brexit environmental legislation, please contact William Wilson on +44(0)1225-730-407 or email <info@wyesideconsulting.com>