UK Will Not Bow to US Demands Over Regulatory Standards, Says Trade Secretary

The United Kingdom will have to accept that its commitment to keeping high food regulatory standards post-Brexit will impose limitations when it comes to doing future trade deals with countries such as the United States, UK Trade Secretary Liam Fox said this week.Speaking at an Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board conference in London today (October 17), Fox was explicit in stating that should there be a clash between the UK’s regulatory requirements for agriculture and food, and the demands of trade partners like the U.S. for a more liberal stance as the price of a comprehensive trade agreement, then the U.S. would lose out.“There have been a lot of reports lately, mostly on social media, that my Department has been planning to lower food and farming standards when negotiating Free Trade Agreements post-Brexit,” Fox told delegates at the ‘Exploring Agricultural Export Opportunities’ conference. “Well, today I am here in person, and let me tell you categorically that these reports are untrue.”The Trade Secretary, an avowed Brexit enthusiast, has been under pressure for some time to say whether or not he would support U.S. demands for the UK to move away from EU regulations to facilitate imports in areas such as hormones on beef and chemically-treated poultry meat.But although Fox did not mention these controversies specifically, he did tell the conference that, from a food exporting point of view, it would be a big mistake to weaken UK standards.