Food and agriculture: Britain considers lowering tariffs to raise standards

Food and agriculture: Britain considers lowering tariffs to raise standards

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Hello, Brussels. After focusing on global affairs and vaccine-related matters, we are now catching up with local news, especially the trade agreement being negotiated between the UK and Australia. Last week, I briefed British journalists on the news that the UK will make. Regular holiday The EU’s position on agriculture is inherited (although we ad, We did not ask for credit), and agreed to Australia’s requirement to reduce farm tariffs to zero, even though the requirement has been more than 15 years. You said that if you stick to it, the British government promises farmers that sensitive sectors will be protected.Well, those farmers can join the British in the crowded “originally distrusted Boris Johnson” enclosure Fishing industry,lie in Northern Ireland, Any company payable Technical barriers When exporting to the European Union and many political and personal acquaintances.As if they didn’t For decades caveat.Someone is About that Obviously yesterday.

In the context of the Anglo-Australia Agreement, today’s main content focuses on the often misunderstood issue of food and agricultural standards. Chartered waters Let us re-examine the performance of the “phase one” transaction between China and the United States, because no manufacturing depression caused by the pandemic can be attributed to this.

We hope to hear from you.Send any ideas to [email protected] Or email me [email protected]

A level playing field difficult to achieve in the UK

We do realize that analyzing Britain’s views on Australia’s bilateral agreement is primarily an economic project, and not part of the stage set up for the all-out, free-spoken global British free trade wave. This is a categorical error. But our brand always neglects entertainment without delay, and works meticulously on the details, so please keep your head down.

Now, some Brexiter ecstatically want to know what they have signed, complain The UK will allow Australian farmers to lower their standards, thereby selling out their farmers. Indeed, Australian agriculture is allowed to use processing and technology (live animal exports, herbicides such as paraquat) and to produce goods that are banned or phased out in the UK (our old friends chemically clean chicken and hormone beef). According to reports, the British government has dealt with this problem by proposing that the zero-tariff system only applies to those products that meet British agricultural standards.

There is some confusion here that needs to be resolved. From a standards point of view, the level of concern for the Australian agreement is not as much as critics believe. However, the British government’s surface solution will not have much impact on the challenges it poses.

First, if you forgive the culinary mixed metaphor, then chemical chicken and hormonal beef are a bit of red herring. Food safety is “Sanitary and Phytosanitary“(SPS) measures, the World Trade Organization (WTO) stipulates that any country can require any product sold on its market, as long as these standards are based on recognized science. This is not a trivial condition: the United States has won WTO case Opposing the European Union’s ban on hormone beef in 1997, Brussels had to buy out the United States by imposing new import quotas on non-hormonal beef. But signing a trade agreement with Australia will not automatically force the UK to accept hormone beef or chemically cleaned chicken. Unless the UK chooses to change, the UK SPS rules will continue to apply, and Australia’s very strict SPS measures for pork and other products will indeed be so.Australia has established an independent institution No hormones The beef sector can take advantage of the UK’s new market access.

A thorny issue is that foreign farm exporters must meet broader animal welfare or environmental standards, the so-called “Process and production methodAccording to the rules of the WTO, the standards here are difficult to justify because they are vulnerable to abuse by protectionism, but you can write them as bilateral or regional trade agreements, and provide higher welfare or more feasible Sustainable products offer lower tariffs. Here are some precedents. Switzerland and Indonesia have reached a trade agreement to give priority to palm oil Certified as sustainable: The draft agreement reached between the European Union and Mercosur also applies to the eggs laid by Brazilian hens enjoying European welfare levels. From a management point of view, this is a bit troublesome because it requires exporters to separate different batches of the same product under a single tariff classification, but it is not impossible.

So, is it all good to make Australian exporters meet British standards and compete fairly? Well. It is not clear whether there will be a large number of upgrades. Show British consumers a photo of Australia’s vast feedlot under the baking sun. Compared with the picture of a happy heifer chopping grass on a Cheshire farm in the children’s story book, it looks very cold. However, if you try to write an agreement that imposes higher standards on imported goods, it is difficult to see how much it will change.

Both British and Australian officials pointed out that Australian agriculture is not a cruel and violent illegal field.The Intergovernmental World Organization for Animal Health in its Latest report The report on Australian agriculture stated that although animal welfare standards are poorly coordinated (they are developed at the state rather than national level), veterinary standards are generally high.

Most of its different standards will not affect preferential trade with the UK. Australia usually has looser regulations on the transportation of animals in vivo, but in any case, they will not always send live animals to the UK. Most Australian states allow pig farmers to use “sow farms” and restrict pregnant sows to smaller pens, but even if the tariff is zero, they may not be competitive enough to sell pork to the UK. Australia has a widely criticized practice called “meresing”, in which the skin is cut from the back of the sheep to prevent parasites. However, it is almost exclusively used for raising woolen Merino sheep, which has already entered the UK. Zero tariff.Many Australian politicians may despise Protect forest cover And Climate Science, But this is not directly related to a specific export.

The British farm lobby complained that this approach has helped Australia’s agriculture develop to its status as a globally competitive superpower, even if these practices did not specifically reduce the cost of exports to the UK. However, as Nick von Westenholz, Director of Trade and Business Strategy at the National Farmers’ Federation in the United Kingdom, admitted: “Australian agriculture may be comparable to most British farms in terms of animal welfare and environmental issues. The values ??on which they are based are very different, but it is not easy to translate them into a specific set of standards that the UK may need in exchange for more market access.”

There is a catch.As many people have pointed out, although Australia is a medium-sized country on the other side of the world, their cows are Not small, but far away -A transaction can set an important precedent. If the UK wants to take the path of differentiated tariffs on high-standard imported goods, it may end up in a series of difficult discussions about what these standards are.In particular, it is American Farm Lobby Whether and when an Anglo-American trade agreement occurred.

The UK may have found a way to sell the Australian transaction to a skeptical public, even if it is not a British farmer. However, there may be more difficult conversations in the future. This is a show with more performances.

Chartered waters

Chad Bown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics has done a good job tracking whether the Trump-era Phase 1 agreement between Washington and Beijing met expectations. The main expectation is that China agrees to increase purchases of certain goods and services in the United States by US$200 billion from 2017 levels between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021.

In 2020, the deal could not be reached, and the U.S. only exported to China 58% Where they should go. Of course, there is a compelling excuse for the global pandemic, which closed factories around the world in the spring.

So, now that exports are back on track, how is the transaction progressing this year?not good

According to the chart, the US exports to China covered by the agreement are still only 60% of what they should be. If they still fail to deliver even when world trade is booming, then we very much doubt whether they will achieve their goals before the end of the year. Claire Jones

Trade ties

The relationship between Brussels and Bern on the rocks. The EU has been trying to persuade Switzerland to sign an overall framework to replace the sporadic agreements that currently exist.but Negotiations are deadlocked.European Express Explanation why.

More about Steel and aluminum tariffs, This time by British government, The company is deciding whether to impose retaliatory tariffs (or reduce tariffs) on American products inherited from the European Union.

Tesla, Was Semiconductor chip shortage, With Say It will not only pay for inventory in advance, but will also purchase its own foundry. Before supply tightens, chips can be purchased at the last minute, which is consistent with the instant supply chain technology commonly used in the automotive industry.

Game console manufacturer The situation has improved. According to the Nikkei report, Sony Say (USD, subscription required), the company plans to produce at least 22.6 million PlayStation 5 next year to enable it to break the record for game console sales in 1998. During the lock-up period, global demand for its machines soared.

Simultaneously, Russia Yes accelerate (Nikkei, $) Air defense system exit In the process of preparing to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, the United States provided assistance to neighboring countries in central Asia.

Bloomberg is call ($) United States joined Comprehensive Progress Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Fight against the rising power of Beijing in the region.We can see the argument, but (as we wrote Here), we don’t expect the U.S. to sign the CPTPP anytime soon. Alan Beattie and Claire Jones

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