Context
MP Luke Evans inquires about steps being taken to ensure UK farmers can sell their products abroad and addresses concerns from constituents regarding food standards.
Question
What steps she is taking to ensure that UK farmers are able to sell their products into global markets under future free trade agreements. Some of my constituents have written to me concerned about food standards, what discussions is my right hon Friend having with DEFRA regarding the Food Standards Agency to guarantee that the agency is fully supported to ensure and enforce that our food standards are up to scratch in our new trade deals as they come to fruition?
Answer from Elizabeth Truss
It is very important to note that we are not going to be lowering our food standards in any of our trade negotiations. British food standards—or certainly those in England and Wales—are a matter for the Food Standards Agency, and it is down to the agency to ensure that standards are upheld. Those standards are also in UK law, transferred as part of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, so they are guaranteed, and the Food Standards Agency is an independent body designed to ensure that they are upheld.
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