Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that future trade deals deliver high standards of food produce for people (a) in Wolverhampton South West constituency and (b) throughout the UK.

Our manifesto made a clear commitment that in all of our trade negotiations, we will not compromise on our high environmental, animal welfare and food safety standards. The Government has already published a suite of documents which set out the UK's approach to trade deals with the US, Japan and Australia and New Zealand, which all reaffirm this commitment. The EU Withdrawal Act will transfer all existing food safety provisions, including existing import requirements, onto the UK statute book. The Government will stand firm in trade negotiations to ensure any future trade deals live up to the values of farmers and consumers both in Wolverhampton South West and throughout the UK.

The Government has in place a range of stakeholder and expert groups to feed into our policy development on trade. These include the Strategic Trade Advisory Group, the Agri-Food Expert Trade Advisory Group, which are subject to regular review, as well as the various supply chain advisory groups such as the Arable Group, Livestock Group and Food and Drink Panel.

We are on the side of UK farmers in trade negotiations, which is why in addition to these groups we announced last week that we will establish a Trade and Agriculture Commission. This will ensure that the UK’s trade policy fully considers our agricultural industry and our commitment to maintain our high standards.