Fox and US trade representative Robert Lighthizer chaired the first meeting of the UK-US trade and investment working group on Monday. “The working group is designed to provide a springboard, laying the groundwork for a comprehensive free trade agreement between our two nations post-Brexit – the start of a new and exciting chapter in our special relationship,” Fox said.

He added that this would not come at the expense of the UK’s European partners. “Britain wants the EU to succeed. There will be no closing off of relations, economic or otherwise, and no abdication of our responsibilities,” he said.

The British trade secretary did not mention agricultural products in his speech, instead focusing on services as the largest sector in the US and UK economies.

Challenge

Yet the campaign group Open Britain, which opposes a hard Brexit, put food standards back at the centre of the debate when it challenged Fox to “devour a chlorine-washed chicken live on camera”. Chlorine washing, along with growth hormones, are examples of practices allowed in the US agri-food industry but not in the EU.

Much British media coverage of Fox’s visit has been asking whether the UK would lower its standards after Brexit to secure new international trade deals. Under the headline “Why US trade deal could hinge on Britons eating chlorinated chickens ”, the Daily Telegraph reported that Fox’s position was to include agriculture in a trade agreement with the US.

Meanwhile, the Guardian said Fox had dismissed Open Britain’s challenge, replying: “The British media are obsessed with chlorine-washed chickens, a detail of the very end-stage of one sector of a potential free trade agreement”.

Lowering UK food standards would allow cheaper food imports into the country, making it harder for Irish exporters bound by EU rules to compete in their leading market.

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