Category Archives: Trade policy

Government defeated in Lords over meaningful vote on future trade deals – Politics live

Posted on by

Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs

- The government are defeated on Labour’s amendment 13 in the House of Lords. The amendment makes it an “objective” of the government during negotiations to pursue a free trade deal allowing the UK to stay “in a customs union” with the EU after Brexit.

- The government was defeated on amendment 12 which called for parliamentary approval of future trade agreements.

Prince Charles has saluted the ”unparalleled bonds” between Britain and Ireland at a time of strained Anglo-Irish relations caused by Brexit.

The Prince of Wales was attending a special St Patrick’s Day dinner at the Irish embassy in London where British and Irish politicians mingled amid continuing uncertainty and recriminations over the Irish border issue in the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

Continue reading...

US ambassador to UK under fire over defence of chlorinated chicken

Posted on by

Critics say process Woody Johnson called ‘no-brainer’ is ‘harmful’ to nation’s health

The US ambassador to Britain, Woody Johnson, has come under fire from a leading food critic, a farming union and trade justice campaigners over his push to open up the UK to American farmers post-Brexit.

Jay Rayner, the BBC presenter, Observer columnist and MasterChef critic, said the UK should tell Johnson where he can stick chlorinated chicken, the US’s preferred approach for protecting consumers from pathogens such as salmonella and campylobacter.

Continue reading...

Concern over food safety as US seeks greater access to UK markets

Posted on by

US sets out aims for post-Brexit trade deal amid fears about chicken and beef standards

The US has outlined its objectives for a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK, demanding greater access to the food markets where products such as chlorinated chicken or hormone-fed beef are currently banned under EU rules.

The US laid out its aims for a trade deal to cut tariff and non-tariff barriers for US industrial and agricultural goods and reduce regulatory differences.

Continue reading...

Hunt and Fox’s Japanese fumble is a sign of UK’s weakness

Posted on by

Attempt to hustle Japan into a trade deal highlights the problems facing ‘global Britain’

It takes a lot to anger the unfailingly polite, anglophile Japanese. But Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, and Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, appear to have managed it with their ill-judged attempt to hustle Tokyo into a quick-fire Brexit trade deal.

The diplomatic fumble has highlighted rapidly escalating difficulties facing “global Britain” – the government’s nebulous vision for life after the EU – in forging new business and trade relationships around the world without an agreed post-Brexit strategy.

Continue reading...

No-deal Brexit: plan to use airfield as lorry park to get live test

Posted on by

Up to 150 lorries to be used in Kent test of government plans to cope with border disruption

Preparations for the possibility of a no-deal Brexit will include up to 150 lorries queuing up near Dover during rush hour to test plans to deal with any disruption caused by new border customs checks, the government has confirmed.

Hauliers in the area will be asked to take part in Monday’s live test of a mass “HGV holding facility” that is designed to deal with any backlog after the UK leaves the EU in March.

Continue reading...