UKJ-Australia Free Trade Agreement - Food Standards Submission

Which? welcomes the opportunity to submit evidence to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) to inform the agencies’ advice to the Department for International Trade (DIT) on the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

Which? research has repeatedly shown that consumers think that maintaining UK food standards should be a priority for the UK’s trade negotiations. This was a strong theme emerging from the National Trade Conversation we convened in 2020, involving in-depth public dialogues in five parts of the country, as well as when we reconvened participants from these dialogues in late 2021. A Which? survey, representative of the UK population, conducted in June 2021 also found that 91% of people thought that the same standards relating to safety and health should be applied to imports as to food produced in the UK – and 87% and 84% respectively in relation to standards for animal welfare and environmental protection.

A number of chapters across the UK-Australia FTA will determine the extent to which people’s expectations that food standards will be upheld in the short as well as longer-term. The government has made welcome commitments that the FTA will not lead to any lowering of UK standards, including the current ban on beef hormones. It states for example that the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Chapter “does not create any new permissions or authorisations for imports from Australia. All products imported into the UK must, as they do now, comply with our import requirements”. It is, however, important that the FTA does not undermine the UK’s ability to regulate in the way that it needs to in the future – whether for food safety or in order to uphold other consumer interests in relation to food.