Ministers have been warned that the UK’s efforts to strike a US trade deal after Brexit could “severely limit” Britain’s ability to negotiate an equivalent agreement with the EU, according to a leaked government paper.
The document written by civil servants at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs suggests the US is likely to press the UK to relax measures to protect humans, animals and plants from disease, pests and contaminants ahead of finalising a trade deal.
Donald Trump’s administration is pushing for access to the British market for US chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-fed beef, which both fall short of the EU’s so-called sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS).
The UK is expected to come under pressure from the US to allow more imports by American agrifoods companies by relaxing rules governing animal welfare and pesticide residue levels, among other things.
The leaked document, which was prepared for environment secretary Theresa Villiers last month, outlines the potential consequences of the UK acceding to Mr Trump’s demands for a less stringent approach to SPS standards as Britain seeks free-trade agreements with countries across the world.
“Any significant movement could have implications for our other [free-trade agreements] or export arrangements, which are based on existing standards,” says the document, which was obtained by Unearthed, the investigative arm of Greenpeace, the environmental group.
“In particular, agreeing to the US asks could severely limit our ability to negotiate an agreement with the EU . . . EU concerns about the risk of non-compliant goods entering its territory would for instance be heightened if the UK acceded to US demands on chlorine-washed chicken.”
The Defra document also acknowledges that relaxing SPS standards in the UK in order to get a US trade deal could damage public health. [...]
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