United States: Trade Deal

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Wednesday 6th March 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Manzoor]

And, if I may for a second, in relation to the—

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, a month before the US published its trade negotiation objectives for the United Kingdom, it published its Summary of Specific Negotiating Objectives for trade with the European Union. The sections on agriculture, for both the European Union and the United Kingdom, are identical—word for word. We have long held that the use of decontaminants on carcasses, as a replacement for good hygiene in farms and slaughterhouses, is not acceptable, and we prohibit it under UK law. We will have a choice: either to align ourselves to the existing European standards, which are the highest, or to adopt the US standards, which the US is asking us to do. Which will we be aligned to: high standards or low standards?

[Baroness Manzoor]

My Lords, we will always be aligned to high standards.