Shadow trade secretary Emily Thornberry has accused the government of failing to secure trade deals “that deliver for Britain”, telling the Commons ministers are allowing the Asia-Pacific region to “take the UK to the cleaners”.
In a question to trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Ms Thornberry said the newly announced UK-New Zealand free trade agreement (FTA) “failed on every count” to deliver benefits at home compared with those secured abroad.
“There is a real problem that this is now the third Asia-Pacific agreement in a row - Japan, Australia and now New Zealand - where more than 80 per cent of the projected growth in trade, by [the trade] department, has gone to exporters in those other countries, and less than 20 per cent has gone to exports to the UK,” she said.
The Labour MP also suggested the new deal would allow NZ farmers to undercut British farmers by shipping in meat produced to lower welfare standards.
Ms Trevelyan replied sternly that the Tories would “never compromise standards for food coming into the UK”, though her assurances have done little to assuage angry UK agricultural workers who say they “aren’t so sure what opportunity” the deal offers them.
