The UK and Welsh Governments announced on 18th August that animal movement rules would be tightened up significantly, despite standards in other countries being far lower than what is already required in the UK. The announcement also confirmed that the new proposals would be introduced alongside a ban on live animal exports destined for slaughter.
This comes weeks after the UK agreed a trade deal in principle with Australia that will allow the importation of vast volumes of food produced from animals that are moved in conditions that would already be completely illegal in the UK.
The 2019 Conservative manifesto promised “in all of our trade negotiations, we will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards,” however, the UK Government chose not to enshrine those standards in the Agriculture Act 2020, nor in the recent Australia trade deal negotiations which agreed to massively increase tariff free access for Australian beef and lamb with negligible guarantees on welfare standards.
Nearly half of Australia's cattle and sheep live exports travel over 9000 miles by sea under far lower welfare standards than those required in the UK.
To ban the crossing of animals from Holyhead to Dublin (56 miles) while agreeing to the importation of more food from countries such as Australia is clearly not a decision rooted in evidence.
Increasing costs and restrictions for Welsh and English farmers by introducing these additional rules will consequently reduce the amount of food produced in the UK and increase the amount of food produced and exported from countries with lower standards.