Select committee says ministers want to rush through deal allowing food imports that fall below UK environmental standards
The government is rushing through a trade deal with Australia that would allow food produced with pesticides banned in the UK to be imported into the country, campaigners and MPs have warned.
He told the Guardian: “There is no democratic input so far into the debate, and there will be pressure on government members to just push it through at the end of the month. We have asked that the time for approval be extended, that parliament gives us 21 more sitting days for parliamentarians to digest the report before ratification.The MP is calling for it to be put to a vote in parliament because “it is one of the most liberalising deals we’ve seen on agricultural standards”.
MacNeil said the deal was far too liberalised on pesticides. “Pesticide limits in Australia are 200 times higher than the UK’s. They also have 144 licensed pesticides, whereas the UK only licenses 73 of these substances. The environmental movement talks about offshoring carbon; you could say that what we are doing is offshoring pesticides.
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