Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

Baroness Jones of Whitchurch Excerpts

Thursday 4th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Trenchard]

To ask His Majesty’s Government, given their intention to align dynamically with the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) regime of the European Union, whether they intend to comply with Chapter 7 of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership on SPS measures.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business and Trade and Department for Science, Information and Technology (Baroness Jones of Whitchurch) (Lab)]

My Lords, the UK and the EU are working towards establishing a common sanitary and phytosanitary area that will remove trade barriers for areas within the scope of the agreement. The UK will not be rejoining the single market or customs union. Our focus will be to regulate consistently with the EU on specific rules in the scope of the CSPS area. We expect the agreement with the EU to be consistent with our international obligations, including those under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. We have entered negotiations with the European Union in full awareness of those international commitments.

[Viscount Trenchard (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her reply but I do not share her optimism that dynamic alignment with the EU’s SPS regime will be compatible with our membership of the CPTPP. The CPTPP’s processes depend on the assessment of equivalence, rather than alignment or harmonisation, between two party’s specific SPS measures. Our CPTPP partners are concerned about our proposed dynamic alignment under the European court for many reasons. For example, the EU’s GMO, gene editing and beef hormone bans are not based on sound science. The EU could put us in breach of the CPTPP’s SPS and TBT rules. A challenge would have to go through Brussels, but the EU is not a CPTPP member. Does the Minister not agree that we would do better to retain responsibility for our own rules and avoid the risk of protracted and expensive litigation?

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[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, quite rightly we have reset our relations with European partners to improve our diplomatic, economic and security co-operation following Brexit. We are now looking at the opportunities that can follow on from that. The discussions with the EU are at an early stage. We signed a common understanding in May this year, and there will be further negotiations that may lead to a new formal agreement in some of these areas. That may require primary legislation for domestic implementation of the agreements in the UK once finalised. Formal negotiations on the EU SPS agreement have not yet begun and we will set out further details, but we will, of course, make sure that anything we do will be consistent with our international obligations and other arrangements with trading partners.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree with me that the Opposition’s obsession with being isolated from the rest of Europe is very damaging to Britain and the industries?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, as I say, we see huge advantages to our reset with our European partners. The fact is that UK agri-food trade with the EU has, since 2018 to 2024, fallen by 21% for exports and 7% for imports. It is important that we re-establish those relationships so that our own trade can benefit from the new opportunities that we will have with the reset arrangements following that common understanding with the EU.

[Lord Fox (LD)]

My Lords, I think we are all grateful to the noble Viscount for causing the Minister to put her trade hat on. It is good to discuss trade. The Financial Times recently reported an influx of Australian steak, which is undercutting British beef. Does the Minister agree with what the Liberal Democrats said at the time: that the Australian FTA, which was made in haste by the Conservative Government of the time, sells out British farmers? What will her Government do to try to protect them from this problem?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, we remain committed to our high agriculture and food standards. As the Trade and Agriculture Commission report has confirmed, all food and drink products imported into the UK will still have to meet our existing import, food safety and biosecurity requirements. We have not lowered our standards to join the CPTPP. For example, hormone-treated beef and ractopamine—I knew I would fall when attempting to pronounce that—pork remain banned in the UK, as will other products affected by pesticides. We will maintain our existing food standards.

[Lord Jack of Courance (Con)]

My Lords—

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[Lord Hannay of Chiswick (CB)]

My Lords, since we are a member of the CPTPP, can the Minister tell us whether any of the other members of that organisation have raised this problem with us and said there will be any incompatibility? After all, our intention to sign an SPS agreement with the EU is a matter of common knowledge.

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, these issues are, as ever, discussed at the CPTPP ministerial meetings. We have assured all those partners that we will maintain our existing agricultural standards, as I have confirmed.

[Lord Jack of Courance (Con)]

My Lords, our membership of CPTPP is facilitated by our ownership of the Pitcairn Islands. Can the noble Baroness confirm that the Government are not planning to give that island away as well?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

The answer to that is no.

[Lord Teverson (LD)]

My Lords, I will try to avoid long acronyms in my question. We had the negotiation back in May for the sanitary and phytosanitary agreement. Nothing has happened yet. My colleagues in the inshore fishing sector in the south-west of England want to understand whether they will be able to export to Europe in the way that they used to, without all the red tape and bureaucracy they have had since Brexit.

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, as I have said, the discussions are only just beginning, and we will set out more details, including with respect to our other trade obligations. I assure the noble Lord that we will do everything we can to remove a lot of the red tape that was introduced, quite unnecessarily, when we left the European Union.

[Lord Frost (Con)]

My Lords, on 27 August, the responsible Minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds, said that any disputes under the SPS agreement

“go to international arbitration, not the European Court of Justice”.

However, the Commission’s negotiating mandate, agreed in July, says that the SPS agreement is based on EU law and

“should ensure uniform interpretation and application”

of EU law, and that

“the Court of Justice of the European Union is the ultimate authority for all questions of European Union law”.

Can the Minister explain how those two statements can be reconciled?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, I have not seen that piece of advice. I assure noble Lords that, as those discussions continue, we will continue to keep Parliament updated, no doubt in your Lordships’ Chamber as well as through our standing parliamentary committees.

[Lord Lilley (Con)]

Can the Minister confirm that the value of goods exported by the EU to us that will be relieved of any liability to SPS checks is five times the value of the goods that we export to the EU? So this deal is five times as valuable to the EU as it is to us. I have no objection to being generous to the EU, since I am a French farmer myself, but was it necessary to pay for the privilege of being generous by also giving away 12 years of our right to enhance our rights over fishing in UK waters, and to agree that we would pay for the privilege of implementing this deal and give up sovereignty over our right to control our SPS rules over the rest of the world?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

We will maintain our SPS standards, as I have consistently said. I remind noble Lords that the EU remains the UK’s largest trading partner for agri-food and vice versa, so there are huge benefits in maintaining or re-establishing a lot of those European trading partners, which will benefit our farmers and consumers as well.

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

My Lords, I will develop a theme that was started by my noble friend in his supplementary question. Given that the UK is ahead of the EU in developing a proportionate regulatory framework for gene editing and that the sector has attracted significant inward investment positioning Britain as a potential global leader, will the Minister confirm that an exemption will be secured for gene editing in any SPS agreement?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

That issue will be discussed as part of these agreements; it is not specific to the discussions that we are having at the moment. I remind noble Lords that we see ourselves as a global trading partner: the fact that we already have deals with India and the US and are now developing them with the EU will ensure that we can provide food on a cheaper basis for consumers while maintaining our own established food standards. That is the way that we should go in the future.