The UK Agriculture Bill is due to have its Third Reading in the House of Lords on 1st October 2020, having completed the Lords Committee and Report stages. The Bill will then return to the House of Commons.
In addition to supporting amendments which would have the effect of preventing substandard imports from entering the UK, the FUW has worked closely with Lords on a number of more detailed areas including:
- The need for changes to levels of financial assistance and the design of financial assistance schemes under Part 1 of the Bill to take into account the support provided to, and operational environments of, agricultural businesses in other countries against which United Kingdom producers compete
- The need for tariffs on imported agricultural goods to be set at levels which take into account the wellbeing of the UK agricultural sector and the importance of maintaining standards of imported goods which are equivalent to, or which exceed, the relevant domestic standards.
As such, the FUW has welcomed the Lords’ backing of an amendment tabled by Labour’s Lord Grantchester which would require all food imported as part of trade deals to match the UK’s standards.
The FUW has supported and lobbied for such an amendment since the Bill was published earlier this year, and has given oral and written evidence to Parliament supporting this view since the Bill's publication early in 2020.
The amendment also includes a requirement for the House of Commons to approve all chapters relating to food in any future trade agreement, and for the Lords to debate them.
The Lords also passed an amendment making it a requirement that the Trade and Agriculture Commission scrutinise all future trade deals; at present, the Commission, which FUW President Glyn Roberts sits on, is due to be disbanded at the end of 2020.
While there is no certainty that the amendments will remain in the Bill once it returns to the Commons, MPs continue to come under significant pressure for this to be the case, particularly in terms of the changes which would require food entering the UK to meet our standards.