The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Call to maintain welfare standards
The UK’s high animal welfare standards must not be lowered in pursuit of new trade deals and a post-Brexit cheap food agenda.
That’s the view of the National Pig Association (NPA) which has called for steps to protect producers and consumers, including equivalent standards for meat imports, when the UK leaves the EU.
The association also wants to see strict labelling laws put in place to provide clarity for consumers over differences in production standards.
The NPA’s Brexit priorities include retaining free access to the single market and access to permanent EU labour.
The association’s chairman, Richard Lister, said: “A free trade deal with the EU is absolutely vital for the pig sector.
“Tariffs on pork exports, for example, of 45p/kg on carcases or 131p/kg for processed hams, would cripple our export trade, slash profitability and export production overseas, particularly if equivalent tariffs were not levied on imports into the UK.”
An even greater concern for the NPA is the prospect of new trade deals that would expose UK consumers and producers to cheaper pork imports from the likes of the US, Canada and Brazil, where health and welfare standards are often considerably lower than ours.
Mr Lister added: “The recent Brazilian meat scandal has highlighted the inherent dangers in any potential new trade deals.
“We don’t want imported meat produced to lower hygiene, welfare and traceability standards posing a threat to consumers and undercutting UK producers.
“We don’t want pork from the US, for example, from pigs reared using the growth promoter ractopamine or from sows reared in stall systems outlawed in the UK since the late-1990s.”
The NPA has welcomed comments by the Prime Minister and Defra ministers confirming they have no intention of allowing UK standards to be compromised in future trade deals.
However, Farming Minister George Eustice has acknowledged that WTO rules, as they stand, make it difficult to include welfare standards as a condition of trade.