US Wants UK to Open Up Its Agriculture Markets as Part of New Trade Deal

GUARDIAN INTERNATIONAL: Potentially wide-ranging agreement could be unachievable due to British objections to lower animal welfare standards

The US is pushing for Britain to open up its agricultural markets to US traders as part of a new economic agreement that would fall just short of a free trade agreement.

Washington and London have begun negotiations over a “foundational trade partnership”, which would cover subjects such as digital trade, labour protections and agriculture, according to documents seen by the Guardian and first revealed by Politico.

The partnership would not guarantee any particular levels of access for service providers to offer their products in each other’s countries, meaning it would fall short of the full free trade agreement that was promised by Brexit supporters after the leave vote.

The negotiations could run into trouble, especially over agriculture. Previous talks over a free trade agreement stalled in part because the UK refused to provide access to American food products such as chlorine-washed chicken or hormone-injected beef. » | Kiran Stacey, Political correspondent | Tuesday, October 3, 2023

From cage-free chicks to puppy mills and Avian flu: Republicans are trying to roll back animal protections: A proposed federal law would wipe out existing state laws that prevent farm animal brutality and the spread of disease »

Will There Ever Be a Post-Brexit US-UK Trade Deal? - BBC Newsnight

Sep 22, 2021 • Boris Johnson and Joe Biden hold face-to-face talks in the White House. Is there any progress of a free trade deal with the US?

Those post-Brexit sunny uplands are looking far, far away now, aren’t they? Things were good for us in the European Union. But BoJo and his clique thought they knew better, and out we came for a wonderful trade deal with the US.

From where I’m sitting, no deal the US can give us will compare with the deals we had as full members of the EU. A Single Market of 500m+ consumers.

BoJo, Hannan, Rees-Mogg et al are clearly living in cloud cuckoo land!

Would that we had some decent leaders! Margaret Thatcher, with all her antipathy towards the notion of a federal Europe, was all for the Single Market—indeed she was one of its principal architects—and I’m absolutely sure that she would never have sanctioned that stupid Brexit referendum. She was a shrewd politician. She knew which side Britain’s bread was buttered. These hacks, by contrast, haven’t got a clue.

I could say 'I told you so.' But I shall refrain from doing so, since it would be in rather bad taste. – © Mark