The Trade and Agriculture Commission What can farmers expect it to recommend?

With the Trade and Agriculture Commission (TAC) about to publish its recommendations for Government on how to protect standards in trade deals, Abi Kay speaks to the group's chairman, Tim Smith, to find out what farmers can expect. The Trade and Agriculture Commission has faced a lot of criticism since it was set up by Trade Secretary Liz Truss in June last year.But now, as it prepares to publish its final report in February, it appears as though it may well recommend what farmers have been demanding since the Brexit process took off - for imported food to meet the same standards as UK produce.Former chief executive of the Food Standards Agency Tim Smith, who chairs the commission, told Farmers Guardian consumers had been adamant about maintaining standards.He suggested it was unlikely that the Commission would recommend the UK should import food which had been produced in ways which do not meet domestic requirements."Consumers do not want food produced to a lower standard entering the UK as a consequence of any trade deal," he said."They just do not."Red lineBut the Commission intends to go even further than this, recommending the Government makes it a ‘red line' that existing bans on produce reared using growth promoters such as ractopamine or Bovine somatotropin (bST) are kept in place."We have banned them for good reason and they stay banned," said Mr Smith."The downside of that is we will signal to trade partners there are things in trade arrangements we are not comfortable with."When people say to me ‘will that not make a trade deal impossible', I have to duck and say ‘that is not the Commission's prime responsibility'."On products such as wheat treated with neonicotinoids, Mr Smith warned policy makers had a decision to make about whether to ‘level the playing field' by banning such imports, or to turn the clock back by allowing them to be used in the UK again - a move which he described as ‘so bizarre as to be ridiculous'."The idea that we would want to lower any of our standards which currently prevail seems so unlikely," he added.ExcludedDeveloping nations will not be excluded from the recommendation that all imported products should meet domestic standards, though an exemption was discussed by the Commission."As a principle, it sounds fine, but as soon as you turn to the practical and operational, it starts to become problematic," said Mr Smith."In my mind, the best way of stimulating improvements in standards locally is to promote investment in those businesses."Asked whether Farming Minister Victoria Prentis was right to be concerned about the UK's food security if low-standard imports were banned, Mr Smith made clear an assessment of the evidence supporting this claim would need to be made."There are products we buy and practices we have allowed others to participate in which are inherently unbalanced," he said."The use of sow crates is probably the best example, where one country is being allowed to use them and legally import the product into the UK."That is definitely an uneven pitch and something which needs to be fixed.