Post-Brexit Trade Deals and Animal Sentience

Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about animal welfare in post-Brexit trade deals and animal sentience.

I agree we must uphold the UK’s high animal welfare, environmental and food safety standards and ensure that our British farmers are not undercut by cheap, low-quality imports in any post-Brexit trade deal. I have consistently pressed the UK Government to adopt a legal guarantee requiring that imported food meet standards at least as high as those required of UK-produced food.

Most recently, I voted to agree House of Lords amendments to the Agriculture Bill that would have enshrined in law the UK Government’s promise to not undermine UK food standards in trade deals and would have forced the Government to be accountable to Parliament during this process. Disappointingly, these amendments were rejected by the Government.

However, pressure from both inside and outside Parliament has helped secure two concessions from Ministers. The first is that the Trade and Agriculture Commission will be put on a statutory footing, renewable every three years, through an amendment to the Trade Bill.

The second concession is to enhance the scrutiny of trade deals. Ministers will require a report to be published on whether a trade deal meets our minimum animal welfare, plant health and environmental laws, although it has not guaranteed a vote in the House of Commons.

These concessions are welcome, but I continue to believe the most secure way of protecting standards is to put them directly into law. We will continue to fight for our farmers and seek to put this commitment into law in the Trade Bill. The Agriculture Bill has received Royal Assent and has become an Act of Parliament.

I have long supported enshrining the principle of animal sentience in UK law. I believe animal sentience must apply to all policy areas and all sentient animals, including decapods and cephalopods. With the end of the Brexit transition period almost upon us, it is concerning that legislation still has not been introduced.

Thank you once again for contacting me and sharing your views on these important issues.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP