Britain’s rural communities could be “destroyed”, the former government food tsar has said, if ministers sign a US trade deal that undercuts British farming standards.
Ministers are working on a new trade deal with the US, after previous post-Brexit attempts stalled. Unpopular agreements signed at the time with Australia and New Zealand featured tariff-free access to beef and lamb and were accused of undercutting UK farmers, who are governed by higher welfare standards than their counterparts. Australia, in a trade deal signed by Liz Truss in late 2021 that came into effect in 2023, was given bespoke sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards aimed to not be more “trade-restrictive than necessary to protect human life and health”.
But the tariffs recently imposed by the US president, Donald Trump, combined with a push from the UK’s Labour government for economic growth, have caused ministers to redouble efforts to expedite a deal, which is expected, say some sources, within weeks. The UK is currently subject to the blanket 10% tariff Trump imposed on the world, and of 25% on aluminium, steel and cars.
There are fears from some sectors that the US deal being drawn up will give the US access to the UK agriculture market and lead to a similar situation. The US side is reported to be pressuring the UK to weaken SPS standards and give tariff-free access to some meat products.
The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, has ruled out imports of food such as hormone-fed beef and chlorine-washed chicken, and said there are US products that currently meet trade standards.
But Henry Dimbleby, who wrote the previous government’s food strategy, has joined farmers in warning against an unfavourable deal for UK food producers.
Dimbleby said: “There is no point in creating a way of farming in this country that produces nutritious food, restores the environment and has high levels of animal welfare, and then import food that is produced in ways that would be illegal for our farmer – you just export those harms abroad, and in the meantime destroy our rural communities. The government has been clear that it will not do this, and it must stick to that promise.”
The Labour MP Clive Lewis urged ministers to align with the EU rather than sacrifice standards in agriculture for a US trade deal.
He told the Guardian: “Since Brexit, the UK has begun drifting from the EU’s higher food and environmental standards. Now we face pressure from a US administration that champions deregulated, corporate-led agriculture, demanding access for products that are more processed and of lower standard. So when ministers talk about trade generating ‘growth’, we have to ask: growth for whom? Certainly not for British farmers, food security or the environment.
“The UK must pivot back toward Europe – towards high standards, democratic accountability and trade policies that serve people, not just profits.”
Farmers, already furious at the government for changes to inheritance tax on agricultural land, are expected to bring fresh protests if such a deal goes ahead.
The National Farmers’ Union president, Tom Bradshaw, said: “There are serious concerns that the US administration is pressuring the UK government to weaken its SPS standards as a concession for lower tariffs or as part of a new trade deal. This could lead to imports of products that would be illegal for our farmers to produce domestically.
“British farmers and growers uphold some of the highest standards in the world. The public has shown time and time again that they want the beef, pork and chicken they buy produced responsibly and not using methods that were rightly banned in the UK decades ago.”
Martin Lines, the chief executive of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, added: “The government was elected on a promise not to undermine UK food standards through imported products, and it is absolutely critical that they stick to that. We cannot ask British farmers to maintain high environmental and animal welfare standards while opening the door to imports produced under significantly weaker regulations.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade said: “The US is an indispensable ally and negotiations on an economic prosperity deal that strengthens our existing trading relationship continue. We will only ever sign trade agreements which align with the UK’s national interests and we will never lower our high food standards.”
