trade

Farming Minister Victoria Prentis has told the NFU she is ‘thinking long and hard’ about establishing a Trade and Standards Commission, just two weeks after publicly rejecting the idea at Cereals.

The fight for a Commission to explore ways to protect food production standards in trade policy is continuing in the House of Lords, with a new Agriculture Bill amendment tabled to force the Government’s hand.

Defra and the Department for International Trade (DIT) have launched a ‘bounce back’ plan to help farmers hit by the coronavirus boost overseas sales.

Pig prices are about 10 per cent higher than a year ago, according to the latest market commentary by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS).

While the world is captured by the ravages of Covid 19, the practice of a former political spin doctor to use a ‘crisis to bury bad news’ is as alive as ever.

The UK Government has so far shown it does not care about protecting our standards, but Ministers can fix their betrayal of farmers by banning low-standard imports in the Trade Bill, says Deidre Brock, SNP food and rural affairs spokesperson.

Trade Ministers are trying to build bridges with farmers, but without legal guarantees to protect our standards, their efforts will not be enough, says Mark Bridgeman, president of the CLA.

In February, a key Government adviser was telling Ministers UK food production is not critically important. Let’s hope the pandemic has shown our trade negotiators the opposite is true, says Neil Farmer, an arable and sheep farmer from the Herefordshire-Worcestershire border.

The Government has announced the launch of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with two of the world’s largest sheepmeat exporters, sparking concern that the UK’s domestic sheep market could be severely undermined.

The US’s largest beef processors have been ordered to provide information in relation to anti-competitive practices during the pandemic.