It is a great pleasure to speak after the hon. Member for South Antrim (Paul Girvan). Agriculture and fisheries are very important in this country, including in Northern Ireland, and as we go forward and do trade deals, family farms and family fishing are important.
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I very much welcome the Secretary of State’s putting in place the trade and agriculture commission, especially as it is to be led by Tim Smith, who I believe will be an independent chair of that commission. I assure the House that we will make sure that whatever findings with which the commission comes forward will be heard on the Floor of the House. We will make sure, too, that we will hold Ministers and the Government to account on our future trade policy.
I believe that the Government are honourable in coming forward and putting into our manifesto a real commitment to the environment, animal welfare and trading visions as we move forward in our new trade policy, but we must always reinforce that and make sure that it happens. Our Prime Minister is keen on getting trade deals with the whole of the world, and I very much welcome that—I am not one of the old corn-laws farmers who want to make protection part of the new trade system—but when we are negotiating, let us make sure that happens, because in that great moment of trying to bring about a trade deal, agriculture, food and the environment might not be quite as high up the list of importance as they should be. The City of London and all these other matters are hugely important to this country, but so too are our welfare standards for food production.
It is about not only welfare conditions and environmental conditions but the cost of production. If the cost of production is lower in other countries and animal welfare standards are lower, that will put our farmers out of business. Sonny Perdue, the US Secretary of Agriculture, went on Radio 4 and said that animal welfare is protectionism and told us to let our farmers compete. Well, we know what he means by that. I do not actually disagree with him: I disagree with his method of farming and with what is going on in the United States, with higher density of population in poultry and hormones in beef, but it is quite right for him to be able to argue that those are the standards in America so we should lower our standards to compete. I would say to Sonny Perdue, “Why don’t you raise your standards in America and compete with us?”, but I suspect that is not going to happen. That is why we have to go into trade negotiations with our eyes open and make sure that we get a good deal.
Trade agreements are good for our economy, provided that the agreement is right. We can get a trade agreement just for the sake of a trade agreement—so that we can tick that particular box, tick off that country and say we have a great trade agreement—but it will be a great trade agreement only if it is actually good for what we produce and for what the other country produces. I accept that we can get more lamb into America, and that will be a very good thing, but what if we do trade deals in future with countries such as Brazil? What does Brazil do? It ploughs up the savannah, it grows soya, cereals and sugar, and it pushes cattle into the rainforest and knocks it down to produce beef.
Let us be absolutely clear as we move forward and let us keep the trade and food commission in place, because it will give the Government the right information that they and our trade negotiators need to enter into trade negotiations and deliver a deal that is right for all people and all industry in this country.