Dear constituent,                                                             

Thank you for contacting me about the Agriculture Bill and animal welfare.

I fully support our British farmers and I am firmly committed to protecting the UK’s high animal welfare, environmental and public health standards in law so that we continue to have high quality food on our plates.

I therefore share your concern that the UK Government’s Bill does nothing to prevent British farmers from being undercut in post-Brexit trade deals with countries with lower animal welfare, environmental and food safety standards.

I have consistently supported amendments to address this issue by requiring imported food to meet standards at least as high as those required for food produced in the UK. While this important principle has been rejected repeatedly by the UK Government in the House of Commons, I am pleased that the Agriculture Bill was amended in the House of Lords to provide legal protection against the import of food produced to lower animal welfare, environmental and public health standards.

The Bill, as amended in the Lords, also ensures Parliamentary scrutiny of food imports in trade agreements by requiring the UK Government to move a motion for approval in the Commons on chapters of international trade agreements relating to agricultural and food imports. I welcome this significant improvement to the Bill.

I also support a successful amendment to strengthen the Trade and Agriculture Commission – the body established to advise on trade policy – by requiring the Commission to produce a report making recommendations to safeguard in international trade policy our current standards of food production relating to animal welfare, the environment and food safety. It would also require a report by the Commission on the implications for British food standards of each individual trade deal agreement agreed, negotiated or concluded by the UK Government, and allow Parliament to vote on each report.

The Agriculture Bill must include legal guarantees to stop post-Brexit trade deals from allowing imports of lower standard food to the UK like chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef. I can therefore assure you I will be backing the amendments secured in the House of Lords to protect UK animal welfare standards in future trade deals.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this very important issue.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP