Devon MP demands scrutiny of US-UK trade deal

A Devon MP has introduced a Bill in Parliament to demand scrutiny of any trade deal that the Government proposes to sign with the United States.

The draft law was put forward by Richard Foord MP. It was selected by the 72 Liberal Democrat MPs, who chose Mr Foord’s Bill on US-UK trade because of the potential impact of any trade deal on the already struggling agriculture sector.

Mr Foord explained:
“Without proper Parliamentary scrutiny and a vote on any deal with the United States, we risk adding pressure to our already struggling farmers; stripping away safeguards on British citizens’ data; and sidelining democratic scrutiny itself.”

“In East- and Mid Devon, farmers have been hit hard by the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme, changes to inheritance tax, and the poorly negotiated trade deals with New Zealand and Australia.”

Richard Foord argued that the UK is already too reliant on imported food. He pointed out that the UK is only producing 60% of the food that is consumed in the UK, down from 78% in 1984. He told the House of Commons that projections of more imported food from United States strengthen the case for backbench MPs to have proper scrutiny of any future UK-US trade deal.

Mr Foord claimed that Boris Johnson’s trade deal with Australia was so slapdash that it was signed after several glasses of wine - and with little input from advisers. Parliament had almost no say, and it resulted in tariffs being removed from over 99 per cent of goods from Australia, including beef.

“It was a move that Mr Johnson’s own DEFRA department predicted would leave the UK’s agriculture and food sectors £278m worse off”, Foord said. “Even if a future UK-US trade deal upholds our food standards - keeping out hormone-treated beef and chlorinated chicken - Devon farmers could still be undermined.

Foord told MPs: “The Government has assured us that there will be no compromise on environmental and animal welfare standards in the UK. Yet these assurances count for little if imports from overseas are not produced to the same environmental standards or the same requirements for high animal welfare standards.”

Mr Foord’s Bill also warned of the risks to digital trade, which could require that the United States has greater access to the UK citizen’s data.