The US Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, has confirmed that she plans to visit the UK next week (May 12-14) as she launches an “aggressive travel agenda to promote American agriculture worldwide”.
According to Secretary Rollins the new US/UK economic deal announced yesterday (May 8) by President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is a “huge win for American farmers and ranchers”.
The US White House fact sheet on the deal outlines that it will “significantly expand US market access in the UK, creating a $5 billion opportunity for new exports for US farmers, ranchers, and producers”.
“This includes more than $700 million in ethanol exports and $250 million in other agricultural products, like beef, “the White House stated.
The British Prime Minister said the new deal sent “a message to the world that Britain is open for business”.
US deal
However it appears not everyone shares his enthusiasm for the new trade deal.
The National Farmers’ Union (NFU), which represents more than 44,000 farming and growing businesses, has voiced its “concerns” about the UK’s deal with the US, particularly in relation to beef and ethanol quotas.
The NFU outlined that the US will have access to the UK beef market through a tariff rate quota of 13,000 tonne (shipped weight) hormone-free beef.
While the UK will gain 13,000 tonne of “ring-fenced access to the US beef market” and the US will have access to 1.4 billion litres duty free ethanol.
However the US 10% additional tariff continues to apply on all UK exports to the USA.
NFU President Tom Bradshaw said:” “For several years, we’ve campaigned with the UK’s agricultural attaches in Washington for market access for British beef, a product globally respected for its quality and strong environmental credentials. These efforts have contributed to enabling the UK government to secure ring-fenced access for British beef exports to the US.
“However, the inclusion of a significant volume of bioethanol in the deal raises concerns for British arable farmers.
“We are working through what this means for the viability of the domestic bioethanol production and therefore the potential impact on our members.”
Bradshaw said the NFU’s biggest concern was that “two agricultural sectors have been singled out to shoulder the heavy burden of the removal of tariffs for other industries in the economy”.
Meanwhile Red Tractor, the UK’s largest food chain assurance scheme, today (Friday, May 9) urged the UK government to “continue to defend UK food standards and farmers” following the new trade deal.
Jim Moseley, chief executive of Red Tractor, said that the UK government must also ensure that any products entering the UK market “do not undercut the high standards of British produce that consumers have come to expect”.
“The standards which farmers and manufacturers produce food to in the UK set us apart from the rest of the world.
“75% of UK adults trust the food they buy and eat in the UK, and the main reasons for that are the strong standards and clear labelling policies we have in the UK.
“We cannot risk slipping backwards to a place where customers are not confident in the food they’re buying – whether that is food safety, animal welfare or provenance,” Moseley added.
Animal welfare
Separately the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) also said today that it believes that the “devil will be in the detail” in relation to the US/UK deal and also sounded a warning that farmers’ livelihoods “could be under threat”.
The RSPCA said that there has long been concerns that a trade deal with the USA could “open the UK food market” to lower welfare produce such as battery caged eggs, sow stall reared pork, chlorinated chicken or hormone-treated beef.
The RSPCA stated: “It is illegal to import and use beef produced with hormones or chlorine washed chicken in the UK, while cruel farming practices such as conventional battery egg cage farming and the use of pig sow stalls are banned in the UK.
“However, these methods are commonly used in states across the USA that export animal products and crucially imports of these products are not protected under the current trade rules”.
David Bowles, RSPCA head of public affairs, said until it has sight of the full legal text of the agreements, its concerns about the “potential negative impacts on our animal welfare standards remain”.
“Unless we uphold our own high standards in trade negotiations, we face a race to the bottom, where price, not quality and welfare, influences what ends up on our supermarket shelves.
“Ensuring animal products that are imported to the UK meet our higher welfare standards must be a priority not just for animal welfare reasons but also to protect the integrity of UK food and the commercial viability of UK farming done to higher welfare standards than overseas,” Bowles warned.
