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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions her Department had with the Department for Business and Trade during the negotiation of accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership; and what assessment her Department has made of the (a) implications for her policies and (b) potential impact on exports of differing standards of pesticide use in states party to that Agreement.

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and Department for Business and Trade (DBT) officials worked closely together to deliver the successful negotiation of the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

The Impact Assessment relating to the UK’s accession to the CPTPP agreement is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cptpp-impact-assessment. It sets out the Government’s assessment of the economic, social, and environmental impacts of the agreement.

The independent Trade and Agriculture Commission (TAC) will also produce a report by 30 November on whether the UK’s accession to the CPTPP agreement is consistent with the maintenance of statutory protections in relation to animal and plant health and life, animal welfare and the environment. Informed by the TAC’s conclusions and advice from the Food Standard Agency and Food Standards Scotland, the Government will then lay its own report under section 42 of the Agriculture Act 2020.

Finally, the Hon. Member asks about the potential impact on exports to the UK of differing standards of pesticide use in states party to the CPTPP Agreement. The Government shares the public’s high regard for the UK’s environmental protections, food standards and animal welfare. Decisions on these standards will remain a matter for the UK and will be made separately from any trade agreements.  Nothing in the CPTPP agreement creates new permissions for imports. All agri-food products must comply with the UK’s import requirements in order to be placed on the UK market.