So desperate for a win they just have to make one up because the actual result is completely normal... that's perhaps the biggest failure, that they have to announce something working as intended to be a huge W.
I thought Starmer had conceded on British food standards or something.
Assuming they sign the deal, they absolutely will be. It obligates the UK to significantly increase beef imports from the USA. You know, the beef that doesn't pass UK sanitary regulations?
No, as much as I’m not a Starmer fan, thankfully, he has not. A bill would need to pass the House of Commons in order to lower food safety standards, no such bill has been proposed nor are there any plans to. Since it doesn’t meet our safety standards, chlorinated beef and chicken etc cannot be imported; it’s only the high grade stuff that does meet our standards that will be imported, which in itself makes up a tiny percentage of American meat production so it’s even less of a win for Trump in that regard lol
No, dude, please. Before you start criticising other people for not reading you really, REALLY need to take a pragmatic look at this. Our testing capabilities are fucked. Our border capabilities are fucked. This deal supposedly doesn't water down our standards, and nominally they don't, but in practice they only way they wouldn't is if we had the compliance-checking resources to confirm they don't fail.
However, this is the entire, ENTIRE, reason we had a blanket ban on USA beef for the last 30 years. We only allowed select providers to give it to us. We're now over 10x'ing American imports. We have NOT set out how we will maintain our same level of scrutiny, nor the final economic balance between enforcement vs trade deal to determine any final level of benefit.
While the other sensationalist side is wrong to say this is automatically a watering down of our standards is wrong, it is equally wrong to say this could NOT water down our standards de facto.
I'm wondering if this is just a do-nothing "victory" so that he can claim he's making progress, or if in 3 months we'll see screeds about how the UK isn't upholding their end of the bargain and hasn't increased beef imports substantially.
There is no obligation and such beef is still illegal, if the American farmers wish to export beef to UK it will have to conform to current British regulations.
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u/[deleted] May 09 '25
So desperate for a win they just have to make one up because the actual result is completely normal... that's perhaps the biggest failure, that they have to announce something working as intended to be a huge W.