Food Safety Standards: Brexit Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Lord Trees
Main Page: Lord Trees (Crossbench - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Trees's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(6 years, 9 months ago)
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Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My Lords, I shall take the opportunity to take that question away and look at it so that I give a proper and detailed reply, of which I shall put a copy in the Library, because it is important. This Government are absolutely clear that we want trade deals. They will be reputable for all sorts of reasons that I have outlined, and we certainly want transparency.
Lord Trees (CB)
My Lords, for some time after Brexit and with many countries, we will inevitably trade under WTO standards. There seems to be some uncertainty as to what extent animal welfare standards such as stocking rates of broiler chickens and so on can be used as conditions of trade under WTO rules. Have the Government sought legal advice on this? If so, can the UK legally demand that certain standards be met under WTO rules?
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My Lords, as I have said, on our statute book will be all the current EU welfare standards, but there are some recent WTO cases which we think will be helpful and we are giving them active consideration.