News • Good Food Trade Campaign
New research paper published on impact of Brexit on British business
Former UK shadow Chancellor and now Harvard research fellow Ed Balls has published a research paper (co-written with fellow researcher Peter Sands) on the latest thinking of senior trade negotiation officials in the US and UK. You can read the full paper here.
In their paper they argue that “US ‘asks’ are likely to include the relaxation of regulations on labelling, food safety and use of Genetically Modified Organisms.
They also comment, “For the US, removing or sharply reducing tariffs on agricultural products will be a key objective. However, while consumers would certainly see lower prices, opening the UK market to much cheaper US food, produced under what are perceived to be lower health and environmental standards, could destroy large parts of British farming and face intense consumer resistance.”
The wider risks of a trade deal with the US have been highlighted this week, with comments from Donald Trump’s Health Secretary Alex Azar about the US using new trade deals to push up drug prices abroad in order to lower healthcare costs at home.
Sustain will continue to resist any attempts to lower our food standards in exchange for trade. If you could like to join us, click here.
And if you would like to read more on why cheap food is not necessarily good food, click here.
Published Wednesday 16 May 2018
Good Food Trade Campaign: Campaigning for good trade that benefits people and the planet at home and overseas.
