Labour Party lawmaker and shadow international trade secretary, Emily Thornberry, said on Thursday that the post-Brexit free trade deal the UK government agreed this week with Australia will "undercut" UK farmers by allowing cheap imports that are produced using practices banned in the UK
LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th June, 2021) Labour Party lawmaker and shadow international trade secretary, Emily Thornberry, said on Thursday that the post-Brexit free trade deal the UK government agreed this week with Australia will "undercut" UK farmers by allowing cheap imports that are produced using practices banned in the UK.
Reacting to a statement given in Parliament by the government's international trade minister, Liz Truss, the opposition lawmaker listed some of the practices that she said are allowed in Australia.
She said, for example, that Australian agricultural corporations use antibiotics to promote animal growth, house hens in battery cages, trim their beaks with hot blades, keep pregnant pigs in sow stalls, brand cattle with hot irons and dehorn and spay them without pain relief, and routinely transport livestock for 48 hours without rest, food or water.
"Under the deal ..., the meat from farms that use those practices will come into our country tariff free, undermining British standards, undercutting British farmers and breaking the promises made to the British people," Thornberry said.
On Tuesday, the UK announced that it had secured a "historic" post-Brexit free trade deal with Australia that will scrap tariffs on products such as UK cars, Scotch whisky and confectionary and offer young people the opportunity to live and work in Australia.
The agreement will also eliminate tariffs on Australian wines, meat, swimwear and confectionery, boosting choice for UK consumers and saving households up to 34 million Pounds ($47.8 million) a year, the government claimed.
Thornberry said, however, that the deal Truss just signed will allow Australian meat industry to export more than 60 times the amount of beef next year as they exported to the UK in 2020 "before they pay a single penny in tariffs."
The Scottish National Party has also criticized the trade deal, with its leader in the House of Commons, Ian Blackford, accusing Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday of having "thrown Scottish farmers and crofters under the Brexit bus," and calling for a vote on the agreement to be brought before Parliament.
