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US trade deal: Tory minister fails to confirm ban on import of chlorinated chicken

Packs of 'Brexit Selection Freshly Chlorinated Chicken' sit on display at 'Costupper' Brexit Minimart pop-up store, set up by the People's Vote campaign group, in November , 2018. (Photo by Tayfun Salci/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images): Getty
Packs of 'Brexit Selection Freshly Chlorinated Chicken' sit on display at 'Costupper' Brexit Minimart pop-up store, set up by the People's Vote campaign group, in November , 2018. (Photo by Tayfun Salci/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images): Getty

The newly-elected environment secretary has failed to offer a clear commitment that the import of chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef will be off the table in any trade deal with the US.

George Eustice, who was appointed in the recent reshuffle, did not give a clear answer on whether the government would retain the EU ban on the two products, which is expected to prove a crunch point in trade talks with Donald Trump’s administration.

His predecessor Theresa Villiers gave a firm commitment that British markets would not be flooded with chlorine washed chicken, which is legal in the US.

But Mr Eustice did not explicitly say he would keep her pledge, instead saying American producers tended to use “lactic acid washes” on poultry rather than chlorine.

It comes amid tensions between Washington and London over Boris Johnson's decision to allow Chinese tech giant Huawei a role in the building of the UK's 5G infrastructure - despite protests from Mr Trump.

Asked to make a commitment, Mr Eustice told Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday: “The truth is that it’s already illegal in this country to sell chlorine washed chicken or indeed hormone fed beef. That’s in our legislation.

“But the important thing would I say is we believe very passionately in this country about our food standards, our animal welfare standards.

"We have worked very hard over the last 20 years to build quite a sophisticated market where there’s a lot of consumer confidence in the provenance of our food, and how it was produced and the safety of our food.

“And we’re absolutely clear in the government that we will not take risks - either with our food standards, and when it comes to animal welfare, we will be projecting our views on animal welfare on the international stage.

“It’s where the UK that’s been a world leader in animal welfare, particularly farmed animal welfare and we want to bring the rest of the world, along with us.”

Asked again if chlorinated chicken was a red line, the Tory minister said: “Well, I’m not quite sure why the US would make such demands because actually chlorine washes on the chicken are very outdated technology and it’s not really used by the US anymore anyway.

(Reuters)
(Reuters)

“What they tend to use these days are lactic acid washes.”

Mr Eustice went on: “What I’m saying is, we won’t make any moves on our standards, we’ve got a clear position in this country that it is illegal to sell chlorine washed chicken, illegal to sell beef treated with hormones.

“We have no plans to change those things but equally as I would say, it’s not the case that the US currently use chlorine washed chicken anyway.”

Ministers’ previous refusal to rule out banning chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-injected beef had fuelled fears about food standards being lowered after Brexit.

Mr Eustice also defended the prime minister's failure to visit flood-stricken areas in recent days, saying: "It's not true that the prime minister's not been engaged in this.

"From the very moment he appointed me he's been engaged. We stood up a national flood response centre and there have been daily conference calls that I've led.

"And in a cabinet government it's not a one-man show. It's right that on certain operational things such as this that the prime minister will ask one of his cabinet members to lead, I can't see anything wrong with that."

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