US trade deal ‘will put British farmers out of business’

Amy Jones

BRITISH farmers “will go out of business” as a consequence of a trade deal with the United States, Theresa Villiers, the former environment secretary, has warned.

Admitting that she had “great fears” about “unfettered competition between domestic farmers and US imports”, she said it would be difficult for UK farmers to compete on price.

Ms Villiers said she was concerned about the impact of a deal on the rural economy and on the union “because of the significance of livestock farming in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales”.

Liz Truss, the International Trade Secretary, has insisted that she would not do a deal with the US if it “does not benefit every sector of UK agriculture”.

However, opponents of practices such chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-injected beef fear that farming standards may be bargained away in negotiations. The Government is being urged to enshrine guarantees into the Agriculture Bill by the opposition benches and many of its own MPS.

Ms Villiers argued that an amendment to the Bill would give certainty to farmers “that our negotiators wouldn’t be able to give way” on standards.

Ms Truss and George Eustice, the current Environment Secretary, are understood to have clashed over the issue, with the latter fearing cheap US products would threaten UK farmers.

Minette Batters, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, said there may be only 60 days to save farms.

“I have nothing against a UK-US trade deal as long as the imports into this country are produced to the same legal standards that we require from our farmers,” she said.

Beef farmer Dominic Harvey, 50, from Bampton, Devon, called on the Prime Minister to act.

He told The Daily Telegraph: “Boris Johnson needs to commit to enshrine food standards into law now to avoid a total decimation of the entire industry.”