Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

UK ban on US chlorinated chicken ‘to continue after Brexit’

Chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-treated beef will be kept out of the UK under any trade deal with the US, the environment secretary has promised

Theresa Villiers told the current European Union ban on the two foods will be carried over into UK legislation after Brexit. Until now the UK has been wavering on the issue. But she told: “There are legal barriers to the imports and those are going to stay in place.”

Ms Villiers has previously talked of imposing tariffs on any future imports of US chicken and beef. But she’s been under great pressure from Britain’s farmers.

In the exclusive interview with the Countryfile programme, she said: “We will defend our national interests and our values, including our high standards of animal welfare.”

Chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-treated beef are illegal under EU law for different reasons.

The EU says feeding cows with growth-enhancing chemicals could potentially result in harm to beef-eating humans – a suggestion the US fervently rejects.

There is, on the other hand, no human health threat from using a bleach solution to kill salmonella on chickens. In fact, it’s rather effective.

But the EU says using chlorine allows American farmers to be careless with the welfare of the chickens.

The US regards the rules against these products as a European ruse to protect its own producers, and has stated that the trade of both meat products will be central to any UK-US trade deal after Brexit.

So Ms Villiers’ promise may please British consumers unhappy with the thought of chicken sprayed with bleach. But it may make things more difficult for Britain’s trade negotiators.

The environment secretary has made a strong promise that “legal barriers” to the import of chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef will “stay in place” and that the government will “hold the line” on this even if insisted upon by President Trump in trade talks. This makes a quick trade deal with the US rather tricky to envisage.

Leaked US-UK trade documents showed the US tried to establish how far the UK would, after Brexit, detach from the EU’s hard line against US farm trade methods. US officials had made a presentation and repeatedly raised the “unscientific approach the EU maintains towards Pathogen Reduction Treatments [chlorinated chicken]”. The US has been in a dispute with the EU over such methods since 1997.

If the environment secretary’s rejection of such key US exports is echoed in the UK’s negotiating position with the US, the US Congress might also object. When similar statements were made by Michael Gove, when he was former environment secretary, in 2017, it caused a rift in cabinet with Liam Fox, who was then trade secretary .

It is a clear example of the delicate balancing act and trade-offs involved in the UK’s new post-Brexit trade freedom.

Fonte: BBC UK

Leave A Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.