Rectify serious error in Agriculture Bill – Empey

Ulster Unionist Peer Lord Empey this week supported two successful amendments in the House of Lords to ensure that imported food products are at least to the same standards as locally produced goods.
Lord EmpeyLord Empey
Lord Empey

Lord Empey (PICTURED) said: “In two previous stages of the Agriculture Bill, I put forward amendments of a similar nature to these two amendments which would ensure that imported food products could not be of a lesser standard in terms of environment and animal welfare than that produced in the UK.

“We have committed not to reduce our high domestic standards. Therefore our standards should not be undermined through trade deals. There is no point in us having world-leading standards in the UK if we do not expect trade partners to reciprocate. Allowing preferential access to food imports produced to lower standards will put many of our farmers at a competitive disadvantage and out of business.

“No government should support the import of food produced to inferior standards than ours. This would be a serious neglect of their responsibilities to the farming community and also to the consumers.

“Yes, we have good standards and we want to maintain them. However, to all intents and purposes some of us, in my part of the United Kingdom in particular, will be left in the EU. The Prime Minister came over a year ago and said, ‘If you get pieces of paper, tear them up and throw them in the bin.’ On July 1, this year the Government allocated £25 million to help us fill in those pieces of paper. By August 29, that had risen to £355 million. That’s a lot of paper.

“We must remember that for some of us, this matter is the difference between having and not having an agriculture industry. As far as Northern Ireland is concerned, this is our largest single industry and many of the leading companies in Northern Ireland are based around the agricultural sector. That is why these amendments are important, and that is why I hope that the House of Commons takes another chance to look at this. They made a serious error the first time round. Our agricultural sector is relying on them to do the right thing.”