UK trade deal with Australia amounts to ‘offshoring’ pesticide use, MPs warn

The authorities is dashing by way of a trade deal with Australia that might permit meals produced with pesticides banned within the UK to be imported into the nation, campaigners and MPs have warned.

The worldwide trade choose committee in parliament has referred to as for a vote on the deal, which might lead to meals produced under British home environmental requirements being offered within the UK.

The SNP MP Angus MacNeil, who chairs the committee, stated there was a threat that the deal can be rushed by way of with out scrutiny by MPs, and that it amounted to “offshoring” pesticide use.

He instructed the Guardian: “There is no democratic input so far into the debate, and there will be pressure on government members to just push it through at the end of the month. We have asked that the time for approval be extended, that parliament gives us 21 more sitting days for parliamentarians to digest the report before ratification.

“As it stands, the UK could ratify this deal without any parliamentary vote whatsoever.”

The MP is looking for it to be put to a vote in parliament as a result of “it is one of the most liberalising deals we’ve seen on agricultural standards”.

This week, the worldwide trade secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, skipped a session of the trade committee after the MPs accused her division of avoiding scrutiny on the difficulty.

“We had a fight with her yesterday,” MacNeil stated. “The fallout we’ve had this week is the secretary of state not even turning up to the committee meeting.”

The Department for International Trade stated on the time that Trevelyan pulled out as a result of she was busy with different commitments.

MacNeil stated the deal was far too liberalised on pesticides. “Pesticide limits in Australia are 200 times higher than the UK’s. They also have 144 licensed pesticides, whereas the UK only licenses 73 of these substances. The environmental movement talks about offshoring carbon; you could say that what we are doing is offshoring pesticides.”

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Josie Cohen, the top of policy and campaigns on the charity Pesticide Action UK, stated: “Australia uses toxic pesticides that are banned here on health and environmental grounds. They also permit residue levels many times more than in the UK. The government’s own advisers have conceded that overuse of pesticides in Australia will put our farmers at a disadvantage but claim existing border checks will keep food with high pesticide residues out.

“However, there is reason to believe that the UK’s border controls on food are nowhere near as robust as the government claims. Government ministers should not be running away from parliamentary committees with legitimate questions to ask – not least, what will the government do to keep consumers safe and why are they breaking their own manifesto commitment to maintain standards in trade deals?”

Orla Delargy, the top of public affairs on the charity Sustain, stated: “Government appears to be trying to rush the UK-Australia deal through without giving parliament a chance to examine it properly. The government has yet to respond to the steer from its own advisers that our concerns about pesticides in Australian produce are valid and the food standards agencies have not examined the possible impact of this on public health, which feels like a huge oversight. Ministers have questions to answer about all of this – and parliament should not simply let them off the hook.”

The Department for International Trade has been contacted for remark.

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