The UK’s trade agreement with Australia led to British farmers and associations voicing concerns about unfair competition and a lowering of food standards.

One of Australia’s supposed key demands for a free trade deal with the UK – their agreeing to buy our hormone-treated beef – is “almost impossible” for the UK to agree to, according to a new report by an anti-Brexit think tank.

Otto English dissects the disadvantages that a free trade agreement between the two countries would bring to the UK.

Food has experienced a bit of a political renaissance as a result of Brexit. Farmers, workers in the food system, retailers and everyone who eats; all have been uneasy over the real risk that Brexit would negatively impact on our food system.

On Feb 28, 2019, the US Trade Representative (USTR) published the US negotiating position on a post-Brexit US–UK trade deal. USTR made clear that the UK must abandon the EU's high food safety, animal welfare, and environmental protection standards as a condition for agreeing the kind of deal many Brexiteers desire.

Despite calls to 'take back control' the economic reality is that tariffs will be determined by the 'bound rates' that the UK already has in place under the WTO and, ultimately, no tariff regime will make up for loss of access to the EU market

UK-US trade agreement was always going to be a tough sell. American Ambassador Woody Johnson’s comment to Andrew Marr on Sunday that healthcare would need to be on the table in any future trade talks only served to make agreeing a fully-fledged deal all the more difficult.

It is one of the starkest of all Brexit contradictions. The most strident supporters of the project want to leave the EU because it imposes demands upon the UK, but then also secure a trade deal with the US which would involve accepting a whole new set of obligations.

US ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson, accused the EU of prioritising ‘history and tradition over innovation and science’. Perhaps, but at least we have high food standards.

Wanting to forge new trading relationships after Brexit and securing them are two very different things.