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We will not water down animal welfare standards - Eustice

31st May 2018 / By Alistair Driver

The Government will not water down food safety and animal welfare standards in the pursuit of trade deals after Brexit, according to Farming Minister George Eustice.

Speaking at the CLA breakfast on the first day of the Royal Bath & West Show, Mr Eustice insisted that the Government would stand firm and set high standards for imported goods, to avoid undermining the British farming sector.

“We have standards that we will not abandon,” he said. Negotiating trade deals and import standards was common in countless other countries, and the UK had to get better at it after abdicating responsibility to the EU for the past 50 years, he added.

Rather than getting spooked by demands from other countries, the Government would set out the boundaries and then negotiations could begin in earnest.

“I’m the first minister standing here for nearly half a century who’s actually able to change anything,” said Mr Eustice. “We now have the power to legislate any way we see fit.”

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