Gove rules out compromise on chlorine chicken imports

Michael Gove has suggested he could block a post-Brexit trade deal with the US if it allowed chlorine-washed chickens to be imported to Britain.
Michael Gove, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.Michael Gove, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Michael Gove, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Giving evidence to a Commons committee, the Environment Secretary said the issue was one of animal welfare not food safety, and that Britain needs to be “assertive” in such trade talks.

Mr Gove said: “The Cabinet is agreed that there should be no compromise on high animal welfare and environmental standards.

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“In America they cannot guarantee the same high standards in terms of how chickens are reared that we insist on here.

“Unless there is a change in the American side we would say that those animal welfare rules are things on which we will not compromise.

“The whole point about trade deals is that you have got to be assertive in defence of your own interests.”

Mr Gove insisted that the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs “punches above its weight” and has “extra muscle” in Whitehall and besides, Parliament could stop the Government signing a trade deal that MPs did not like.

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International Trade Secretary Liam Fox recently said the issue of chlorine-washed chickens would only be “a detail of the very end stage of one sector of a potential free trade agreement”.

During today’s hearing, Mr Gove told the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee that there would be higher food prices if the UK did not secure an exit deal with the EU and reverted to World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.

“If we went out on WTO terms, and we maintained tariffs... then there would be increased prices for consumers. But also there would be increased opportunities for farmers with import substitution.”

Farming Minister George Eustice quoted research from the Resolution Foundation that on WTO rules retail prices might rise by 4.3 percent.

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Committee chairman Neil Parish MP challenged Mr Gove on his commitment to delivering a Brexit for farming as well as the environment. He asked how farmers will survive if direct subsidies end after the Government’s commitment to maintaining existing support until 2022.

Mr Gove said: “Farmers in the less favoured areas - and upland hill farmers who are producing sheep meat as well as wool are some of the most prominent examples - are people who will need support over several years to come.”