US-UK trade deal – what it means for the pig sector

As the dust settles following the whirlwind that has been US trade over the past 48 hours, we wanted to pull together a quick explainer of where we are and what is now to come.

The first thing to stress is that, for the time being, nothing has changed from the perspective of the pig sector. Despite intense lobbying from the US pig sector, and an 11^th hour call from the US President to the Prime Minister, the US currently has no pork access into the UK market.

Equally, the baseline 10% tariffs on UK products entering the US remains, including for any UK pork being exported to the US.

The other important point of note is that, while some major agreements were struck, yesterday’s deal was a framework and the General Terms of the deal sets out the path for ongoing negotiations.

It is clear that the US pig industry is very keen to gain access into the UK market, and despite not having had that success in the first part of the deal, that desire is not going away any time soon.

We in the UK must continue to make the case for equivalence in standards as part of all our trade agreements, so that we do not undermine British farmers and simply offshore food production to countries with less sustainable systems and lower animal welfare standards.

The text of the deal explicitly states that “following a reasonable period of negotiation: (i) the United Kingdom intends to reduce its applied tariff rates on a preferential basis on a range of originating goods of the United States in sectors of importance to the United States”. We should be in no doubt that as part of this ongoing negotiation, US pork constitutes a sector of importance to the United States, especially given the direct intervention from President Trump.

Further into the document there is a section which covers further agricultural access and recognition of standards:

“The United Kingdom and the United States plan to work constructively in an effort to enhance agricultural market access. Further, both countries positively support future discussions to strengthen bilateral agricultural trade. The United Kingdom and the United States affirm that imported food and agricultural goods must comply with the importing country’s sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards and other mutually agreed standards.

“The United Kingdom and the United States commit to working together to improve market access for agricultural products, to highlight concerns, and to increase agricultural cooperation on areas such as certain export verification programs to facilitate greater trade, and more formal bilateral engagement through international standard setting bodies”

The UK Government has repeatedly stated that SPS standards were a red line as part of negotiations, and we cannot stress enough how positive it is that they have stayed true to their word on this.

However, we again must emphasise the point that in addition to SPS standards, differences in environmental and animal welfare standards during production must also be recognised.

Some practices used in the US have long been illegal in the UK, and so this not only undermines the good work that British producers have done to improve method of production standards at home, but it also undercuts them in price because the US cost of production is in many instances much lower than the UK.

This is not to say that all US production is done in this way, and so we need to ensure these higher standards are protected and pork that would be illegal to produce in the UK is not imported here instead. We believe the term “other mutually agreed standards”, as set out in the deal, gives the UK Government the flexibility to instigate these protections and the NPA will continue to make these requests of government.

NPA response to UK-USA trade agreement – May 8

While we still await the details of today’s agreement, it is an important first step in restarting trading relations with the US. The US market is worth £24 million on average and represents our fourth largest export destination for UK pork.

  The NPA supports international trade, which helps to meet the UK’s demand for pigmeat and compliments domestic production, helping to maximise pig carcase balance. However, it is vital that this is done in such a way that protects the UK’s high production standards and ensures there is an equivalence in all trade deals.

While the NPA welcomes government assurances that “protections on food standards” have been maintained, we reiterate our position that the UK Government should establish a set of core production standards that would apply to both domestically produced and imported food in order to be sold in the UK. Implementing core standards will prevent UK farmers’ animal welfare and sustainability efforts from being undermined and ensure that the UK does not simply offshore food production to countries with less sustainable systems and lower animal welfare standards.

Allowing goods into the UK produced to standards that would not be legal for our producers, would represent a betrayal to British farmers. The trade agreement reached with India earlier this week sets an important precedent for future trade agreements, recognising sensitive farming sectors like pork and the importance in upholding the UK’s high production standards.