Boris Johnson's US Trade Deal Will Make Britain a Paradise for Disaster Capitalists

THE GUARDIAN: Chlorinated chicken is just the start. The government intends to rip up food standards, public services and public protections

The Conservative manifesto made a clear promise. It pledged that in the government’s trade talks, “we will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards”. Just six months after the election, the promise has been ditched. Our government is now proposing that chlorine-washed chicken, beef treated with growth hormones, pork from animals injected with a drug that makes their meat leaner, called ractopamine, and scores of other foods produced in the United States by dangerous, cruel and disgusting means will be allowed into this country, as long as higher trade taxes (tariffs) are applied to them.

The trade secretary, Liz Truss, has made it clear that any such tariffs would be removed within 10 years. It’s impossible to see the American trade negotiators allowing them to pass in the first place. The US intends to secure “comprehensive” access to our food markets, while “reducing or eliminating tariffs”. This nonsense about higher tariffs is a blatant attempt to soften us up, to sugar the toxic pill of US imports that don’t meet our standards. When I say sugar, I mean high-fructose corn syrup. » | George Monbiot | Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Brexit was such a stupid idea! Just look at those faces! Two blond idiots working in harmony to destroy our food standards. – Mark

UK Election: Halt US Trade Talks until NHS Off Table, Corbyn Tells Johnson

THE GUARDIAN: Labour leader calls for break in talks unless pharmaceuticals excluded from negotiations

Jeremy Corbyn has urged the prime minister to break off trade talks with Donald Trump until any reference to pharmaceuticals is struck out of Washington’s negotiating objectives.

As the US president prepared to fly in on Monday evening to attend the Nato summit alongside other world leaders, Corbyn wrote to Boris Johnson to urge him to give fresh reassurances about NHS privatisation.

The Labour leader has repeatedly accused the prime minister of preparing to sell off the NHS, and Labour activists at recent rallies have taken up a chorus of “Not for sale! Not for sale!” » | Heather Stewart, Political editor | Monday, December 2, 2019

No Chance of US-UK Deal If Northern Ireland Peace At Risk - Pelosi

THE GUARDIAN: Senior US politician says Brexit cannot be allowed to imperil Good Friday agreement

There is no chance that a trade agreement between the United States and Britain will pass Congress if Brexit undermines the Good Friday peace agreement between Ireland and Northern Ireland, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has said.

“Whatever form it takes, Brexit cannot be allowed to imperil the Good Friday agreement, including the seamless border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland,” Pelosi said. » | Staff and agencies | Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Life after Brexit: A Trump Trade Deal?

What did Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times and Professor John Bew, biographer of Attlee and author of Realpolitik, make of the week when President Trump came to town?

US Ambassador to UK Under Fire over Defence of Chlorinated Chicken

THE OBSERVER: Critics say process Woody Johnson called ‘no-brainer’ is ‘harmful’ to nation’s health

The US ambassador to Britain, Woody Johnson, has come under fire from a leading food critic, a farming union and trade justice campaigners over his push to open up the UK to American farmers post-Brexit.

Jay Rayner, the BBC presenter, Observer columnist and MasterChef critic, said the UK should tell Johnson where he can stick chlorinated chicken, the US’s preferred approach for protecting consumers from pathogens such as salmonella and campylobacter.

Writing in the Telegraph on Friday [£], Johnson attacked warnings that a post-Brexit trade deal would result in chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-pumped beef arriving on supermarket shelves. “You have been presented with a false choice,” he wrote. “Either stick to EU directives, or find yourselves flooded with American food of the lowest quality. Inflammatory and misleading terms like ‘chlorinated chicken’ and ‘hormone beef’ are deployed to cast American farming in the worst possible light. » | Jamie Doward | Saturday, March 2, 2019