April 18, 2025

UK will not compromise food safety standards in favour of getting lower US tariffs, says business minister

 

 

The United Kingdom will not relax its food safety standards as part of any deal to secure lower tariffs on its exports to the United States, business minister Jonathan Reynolds said on April 13.

 

US President Donald Trump has imposed 10% tariffs on most imports of British goods to the US and a higher 25% rate on imports of cars, steel and aluminium.

 

Although the tariffs imposed on Britain are at the lower end of the US' scale – reflecting broadly balanced trade flows between the two countries – Reynolds said he still viewed the greater trade barriers as "disappointing".

 

Attempts to strike a bilateral trade deal during Trump's first term in 2017-2021 ran into opposition from Britain's Conservative government at the time over measures to lower animal welfare and environmental standards.

 

Reynolds said that looser food standards remained off the table for the Labour administration, as he viewed that as breaching promises made in 2024's election campaign.

 

"We will never change our SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) food standards. We've made that perfectly clear to the United States," he told Sky News in an interview.

 

Common US and Canadian practices such as washing raw chicken in chlorinated water or feeding growth hormones to cattle are banned in the UK and the European Union.

 

However, parts of the US food industry did meet British standards, Reynolds said, hinting at a possible area for negotiation on tariffs.

 

- The South China Morning Post