BrexitWatch, June 21, Catherine McBride
Many UK protectionists are claiming the UK-Australia agreement will be a template for future trade deals and therefore conclude this will be a disaster for the UK’s cossetted agricultural sector. I totally disagree, it will not harm UK farmers, but it may not even benefit UK consumers – yet there are some sections in this agreement that are worth templating.
For the UK’s first independent trade deal the good news is the acknowledgment in the trade agreement that both countries have the right to establish and uphold their own regulations in relation to the environment, domestic laws, Sanitary and Phyto Sanitary (SPS) regulations, and labour standards.
This may not sound like a significant proclamation but with the EU still trying to impose dynamic alignment with its SPS regulations on the UK, claiming that it is the only way of saving the Northern Irish Protocol, trading with countries that accept mutual recognition as best practice should hopefully become the new normal.
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