Miles rejects sub-standard food policies
WELSH Counsel General Jeremy Miles has urged the UK Government not to press ahead with legislation that could force Wales to accept sub-standard imported food from the United States like chlorinated chicken.
It is understood that Westminster will shortly publish proposals for how a “UK single market” for goods would operate after we have left the European single market and customs union.
There are fears that the UK Government intends to introduce legislation that would oblige Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to go along with food standards accepted by it for England.
Whitehall officials have begun negotiations for a free trade deal with the United States. President Trump and his Ambassador to the UK Woody Johnson have made it clear that they would expect Britain to scrap its current high standards on food, consumer rights and the environment, derived from its former membership of the EU.
That could mean the UK being obliged to accept products like chlorinated chicken, which do not conform to EU-style animal welfare standards,
Mr Miles said: “Unlike the Scottish Government, which is totally opposed to the concept of a UK single market, we believe there is merit in it if it is organised on a fair basis.
“I have written to Michael Gove [the Cabinet Office Minister] and Alok Sharma [the Business Secretary] suggesting that decisions about standards should be taken by the four administrations [UK Government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive] on an equal footing and by consensus.
“This would be a far better way to proceed and would respect the devolution settlement. So far I have not had a reply.
“We are expecting the UK Government
to publish a Green Paper or White Paper for consultation very imminently, and I shall study it with my officials.”
Mr Miles said that at this stage he was unable to say whether there would be any prospect of the Welsh Government mounting a legal challenge to the UK Government’s plans.
The situation is complicated by the fact that while animal welfare, agriculture and environmental standards are devolved, the making of international trade deals is not. It is that on which the UK Government rests its case to impose lower standards on the devolved nations.
In Scotland Michael Russell, the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, said his government was prepared to fight in the courts over UK legislation that would aim to give Westminster unilateral control over standards.
Mr Russell said: said the Scottish administration accepted the need for “common frameworks” across the UK and had been working with UK Government officials to try to agree them in contested policy areas.
But he went on to accuse British ministers of “bad faith” in proposing a statutory framework for the UK market that would allow them to “impose what they like”.
“We do not accept that this is a legitimate way of operating within devolution.
“[If] they pass legislation…then we will have no intention of implementing that and they would have to essentially go to court to force its implementation.”