Sign Trump may again down over US beef in large commerce deal change | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Donald Trump’s Agriculture Secretary appeared to melt her stance on getting the UK to simply accept chlorine-washed hen and hormone-treated beef. Brooke Rollins final week mentioned US agriculture was being handled “unfairly” by international locations, such because the UK, and that she wished the UK to simply accept all meat from the US.

Speaking at a press convention in London on Tuesday, she instructed reporters the US market is starting to shift away from hormone-treated beef, and that chlorine-washed hen has nearly fully been faraway from the US provide chain. She mentioned: “Our agriculture producers, our cattle producers etc, obviously are constantly watching what the markets look like, and if the markets are calling for a specific type, or they have more opportunity somewhere, then I think that we potentially do see some movement in the market.”

When pressed on whether or not she would urge the UK to simply accept chlorinated hen in lieu of decrease tariffs on different merchandise, Ms Rollins mentioned: “Only about 5% of our chicken in America is actually treated that way, with the chlorine. So we have moved, over the last decade, completely away from the ‘chlorine chicken’. I think that’s really important to dispel, and I’m very grateful to do that.”

Chlorinated chicken is banned in both the UK and the EU because of animal welfare and its potential to mask poor hygiene standards.

Concerns surrounding hormone-treated beef involve potential human health risks and animal welfare issues.

The US and UK agreed a trade deal last Thursday which included new quotas on beef.

But the UK government has insisted hormone-treated beef and chlorinated chicken will remain illegal.

Ms Rollins said: “One thing I’ve taken from a lot of the discussions yesterday [when she met Environment Secretary] and today is that the more our two countries, and those who are aligned with our values, are regulatory aligned, meaning that we don’t have all these different systems and structures – I think that that is going to go a tremendously long way to supporting the agriculture industry.”

Pork, poultry, seafood and rice are on the prime of the record for additional negotiations regardless of not being included in final week’s US-UK commerce deal.