Brexit, the economy and house prices part 5

Enterprise_1701C

buglawton wrote: »

You're right about food standards. My take is we could do very liberal deals with USA so long as we vastly improve our labelling to let the consumer decide. So, really prominent labels about country of origin (5 times larger font than now) and similar labelling on any standard eg GMO/chlorine treatment/animal welfare, that diverges from our own 'gold' standards.

Could we also have very prominent labels detailing if something is Halal or Kosher? I have more problems with the people sidestepping English Law as regards halal products than I do with the way americans do things. Also, I believe that most of the New Zealand lamb is halal, so I therefore no longer buy it.

Ballard

buglawton wrote: »

The EU doing trade deals is subject to being blocked by a veto from any one of its member states. That’s why the deals take so long to finalise. For example, first Belgium stalled the Canada deal, now Italy is (it’s still not ratified):
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/italy-to-block-eu-canada-trade-deal-3hdh2w3td
Every EU country has its own patisan trade interests. The UK being properly outside means it would be much more agile.

This issue was repeatedly brought up prior to the referendum when Leavers were saying how easy it would be to get a good trade deal with the EU. Remainers concerns were dismissed as ‘project fear’.

Herzlos

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jul/18/dairy-products-may-become-luxuries-after-uk-leaves-eu?CMP=share_btn_tw

Dairy products 'may become luxuries' after UK leaves EU Reliance on EU butter, cheese and yoghurt means sharp price rises, says milk producer Arla

I know of some large producers that rely on EU butter, because of a combination of UK butter price increases and lack of availability.

Herzlos

Enterprise_1701C wrote: »

Could we also have very prominent labels detailing if something is Halal or Kosher? I have more problems with the people sidestepping English Law as regards halal products than I do with the way americans do things. Also, I believe that most of the New Zealand lamb is halal, so I therefore no longer buy it.

How does Halal sidestep English Law? The stunning part?

Herzlos

buglawton wrote: »

You're right about food standards. My take is we could do very liberal deals with USA so long as we vastly improve our labelling to let the consumer decide. So, really prominent labels about country of origin (5 times larger font than now) and similar labelling on any standard eg GMO/chlorine treatment/animal welfare, that diverges from our own 'gold' standards.

Does that extend to the whole food chain, from raw foods to restaurants?


The people that'll be buying the faeces & chlorine covered stuff are going to be those on the tightest budgets and will need to buy it anyway if it's a choice between chlorine protein and no protein.


The US deal may even prevent us with labelling; because it'll adversely hurt the US products. We're not going to get a deal where Trump doesn't feel like he's violating us.

buglawton

Herzlos wrote: »

Does that extend to the whole food chain, from raw foods to restaurants? ..... The US deal may even prevent us with labelling; because it'll adversely hurt the US products. We're not going to get a deal where Trump doesn't feel like he's violating us.

It'll be Parliament that hammers out the detail of future food labelling.

You are right that the US would lean on the UK to have misleading labelling. And that is exactly what our Parliament is there for, to not agree to any poor labelling regime, and at the same time expose any potential partner country's intention and motivation for having poor labelling and supply chain tracking.

I'm not sure exactly how we got our current labelling but it's sure hard to read country of origin. I'm sure we accept EU-wide labelling standards but with Brexit that could change.

Herzlos

I thought we had pretty good origin labelling on some goods, like meat. But I have to admit I don't pay that much attention when I'm buying.

Ballard

Herzlos wrote: »

I thought we had pretty good origin labelling on some goods, like meat. But I have to admit I don't pay that much attention when I'm buying.

I almost always look at the origin and will buy British food if the option is there, the quality is good and the price is reasonable.

Kent tomatoes (Thanet Earth) are a prime example. Probably the tastiest around and very local to me.

Rinoa

Brilliant question on PMQ's

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/1019539704214061057

Lornapink

Remainers promised UK would get a terrible EU deal, a punishment deal at best, why on earth would us Royal biscuit tin makers get anything other than EU crumbs, after all 'the EU needs nothing from us they cannot produce themselves, and they will just find new markets to replace ours'.

Oh look, big trade deal done with a 3rd party nation, not aligned in the way UK-EU already are and without freedom of movement and all the other dross Remainers insist are indivisible from good trade deals.
Of course a very good UK-EU deal will be done as we promised well before June 2016 when Remain experts told us we'd get a paltry deal that would take 10 years to negotiate, lol

EU rejects protectionism in huge trade deal with Japan

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a14c5f26-8a04-11e8-a0fd-e428ecc3ac12