Hope for low-standard import ban boosted as expert claims it would be WTO compliant

One of the reasons Ministers have given for objecting to a blanket ban is the potential for it to be challenged at the WTO.

But the FBSC – a ‘shadow’ Trade and Agriculture Commission – was told by Emily Lydgate, deputy director of the UK Trade Policy Observatory, that protection of animal welfare and environmental standards was possible under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) public morals defence.

In 2014, the WTO appellate body found that the public morals exception for trade restrictions includes animal welfare, in a decision on an EU ban on certain seal products.

Though the Government has so far refused to accept any legislative amendment that would introduce a blanket ban on low-standard imports, Farming Minister Victoria Prentis did suggest the Trade and Agriculture Commission (TAC) could be reconvened after being disbanded if there was a need for its advice on protecting standards in future.

Speaking during the Agriculture Bill debate this week, Ms Prentis said: “[The TAC] was designed to be helpful, to feed into the trade negotiations we are conducting at the moment.

“There is nothing to stop it being stood up again if it was felt that would be helpful. There is absolutely no need to put this in the Bill.”