UK-US trade pact opposed with Trump, cows and pigs as props

[groundloop]

Source: ABC News



LONDON -- Demonstrators dressed as chickens, a cow and President Donald Trump gathered Saturday in London to protest a proposed U.S.-U.K. trade deal that activists say will lower food safety standards.

Some 50 people assembled near the Houses of Parliament to protest the ongoing negotiations for the trade deal, which the U.K. government is counting on to cushion the impact of Britain’s departure from the European Union. Demonstrators are worried the agreement will relax rules for food imports from the U.S.

One protester wore an oversized Trump head and carried a giant syringe to highlight concerns that beef treated with hormones could be sold in the U.K. Critics are also worried about the importation of chickens washed in chlorine, a practice they suggest covers up poor animal husbandry practices.

Another demonstrator dressed as a cow named Daisy. Asked whether she was uneasy about the possible lowering of food standards, she nodded and said: “Moo.’’

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/uk-us-trade-pact-opposed-trump-cows-pigs-73804135?cid=clicksource_4380645_4_heads_hero_live_headlines_hed

[PSPS]

1. By EU standards, our food is practically poison.

When I looked at how most of our food violates EU safety rules, I was shocked.

[OrwellwasRight]

3. The thing is . . .

food safety standards should not be set in trade agreements. They should be set domestically, subject to the will of the people, and raised when the people collectively act to raise them. Neoliberal trade deals -- and this is not just a Trump problem, it is a Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump problem -- put a ceiling on food safety.

We need to get wise about how corporations attempt to box in democracy through trade deals while decrying anyone who objects to corporations setting social protection standards as a nationalist idiot.

[PSPS]

4. The FDA and USDA have been "captured" hence our lax food safety standards

This is the primary reason the EU eschews so much of our food. Our standards fall well below theirs when it comes to things like carcinogens, GMO's, etc.

Here's an interesting read:
https://www.focusforhealth.org/the-american-food-supply-not-fit-for-european-consumption/

[OrwellwasRight]

5. But even if we get the agencies "uncaptured"

higher standards can be challenged via trade deals. My point is these food conglomerates aren't content with controlling food laws in the US for the time being. They want to control food laws world wide permanently, and that is why they work so hard to support trade deals, which have entire chapters on how countries can and cannot regulate. Then they can use the trade deals as a mechanism to ratchet down attempts to strengthen food safety and consumer labeling.

For example, when Congress strengthened country of origin labeling for meat products, US slaughter houses were unable to win the battle in Congress, so US slaughterhouses, which are customers for Canadian and Mexican-raised beef, convinced Canada and Mexico to challenge the label as a trade barrier. WTO ruled for Canada and Mexico and the US repealed the labeling law. And that was only labeling, not even a strict standard like larger cages and restrictions on hormone and antibiotic use.

https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2015/12/18/hidden-omnibus-comply-world-trade-organization-congress-kills-country-origin

Similarly, the US had to revise our dolphin safe tuna labeling multiple times before finally getting a watered down version approved by the WTO in December 2018.

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article24740884.html

[KY_EnviroGuy]

2. K&R. They shouldn't leave that tRump head mask on the ground very long.....

'cause some guy will walk up and piss on it.........

I'm delighted they're protesting. Their Tories want to trash all EU standards and like Republicans, make everything in life laissez-faire for the sake of big business.

KY