I am delighted to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Henig, and thank her, the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, and the noble Baroness, Lady Brown of Cambridge, for their support for the amendment in my name. Since we last met in Committee, there have been two positive developments. One is the fact that the Government have published their report on the implications of no deal for business and trade. The second is the promise to publish the tariffs.
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I shall speak about my Amendment 4, which I thought was superior to Amendment 3, although there is not a great deal in it. I am particularly concerned
that, when we look at the rolled-over agreements with some countries, we see that a number of African countries do not necessarily have the same animal health and hygiene standards that we do. This is a matter of concern with continuity agreements as well as with future agreements.
I hope that my noble friend the Minister will agree that any relevant trade agreement that we wish to see as part of the continuity agreements should be consistent with the standards laid down by primary and subordinate legislation, whether those are principal or minor. I hope that her department can help a little more by explaining what “principal legislation” means, because I still do not entirely follow that. I want particularly to look at food safety and animal welfare issues in this regard, and to ensure that any goods imported under a relevant trade agreement have been produced to standards comparable with those already effective in the UK, as per the aspects listed in subsections (1) to (3) of my amendment.
I also insist that both Houses should have,
“approved a motion that the relevant trade agreement does not have the effect of lowering marketing standards for agricultural products below the standards used by the European Union on the day the motion”—
that is, the motion to leave—
“is passed”.
The noble Baroness, Lady Henig, made that point eloquently in Committee.
The figures are quite telling. On 2018 figures, trade between the UK and the EU amounts to £286,000 million, accounting for 45.6% of total UK trade. That is overwhelmingly our major market. UK participation in the roughly 40 current trade agreements covering 70 countries—again, on 2018 figures—is infinitely smaller, and accounts for 11% of UK trade. UK trade with the rest of the world currently amounts to about 40% of our trade. UK-US trade is 18% of our trade. There is lots of talk about a future agreement with Japan, as currently we have no agreement with that country, but that would account for only 2.1% of our present trade. With Turkey the figure is 1.9%.
I understand that since Committee stage the Government have issued a Written Ministerial Statement in the other place outlining the implications of the fact that the Turkey agreement and the EU-Japan agreement cannot be rolled over. It is very helpful to have that Statement on the record.
As I said at the opening of Report stage, I regret that the House is not yet in possession of the tariffs. I understand that we have some figures from the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, given at the NFU conference last month, and that in the event of no deal we are looking at potential tariffs on imports of 70% on beef and 45% on lamb. It is important to grasp those figures, and what the impact on our home producers will be.
Under a previous Conservative Government—I welcomed this at the time, although it made us very uncompetitive—we had the unilateral sow stall and tether ban, which gave our UK pig producers a seven-year disadvantage. It put prices up because we had to impose the ban seven years in advance of the rest of the EU, and many of our producers went out of
business because consumers voted with their feet and bought the cheaper meat produced to lower animal welfare standards. I hope that the Minister will not lose sight of the fact that consumers, the public and farmers welcome these higher standards of animal welfare, and that they will not be sacrificed in this dash for future free trade agreements.
On the continuity agreements—the rolled-over agreements—the most unfavourable one relates to the Faroe Islands. We export £6 million-worth of goods to the Faroes and import £200 million-worth, mostly fish. That will be of concern to the Scottish fisherman, as the fish are mostly salmon, halibut, haddock and many of the other products the Scots seek to sell.
I hope the Government will look favourably on Amendment 4. We recognise all the work that successive Governments of various political persuasions—including both main parties—have pursued in setting a high bar for animal welfare and food safety. In the amendment, I have added animal health and hygiene to any future rolled-over agreements.