cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/26864906

Britain must allow US chlorine-washed chicken into UK markets if it wants relief from sweeping tariffs, Donald Trump has indicated.

It comes after the UK failed to avoid tariffs imposed on the global economy, with the US president slapping a 10 per cent levies on all British exports to the United States.

In a statement published alongside the tariff announcement, the White House said: “The UK maintains non-science-based standards that severely restrict US exports of safe, high-quality beef and poultry products.”

It suggested that Britain’s ban on chlorinated chicken was among a range of “non-tariff barriers” that limit the US’s ability to trade.

The UK has long ruled out allowing imports of chlorine-washed chicken from the US due to health concerns, with Downing Street on Thursday reiterating its manifesto commitment to high food standards.

Asked whether the UK could allow imports of chlorine washed chicken in order to appease the US, the prime minister’s officials spokesperson said: “Our position on that is unchanged. You’ve got the manifesto commitment on food standards, which obviously remains.”

The last major polling done on the issue, conducted in 2020, revealed that 80 per cent of Britons are opposed to allowing imports to the UK, and the same proportion is also against allowing chicken products that have been farmed using hormones.

There is also growing pressure from the farming industry to rule out concessions on the issue, amid fears it could undercut British farmers and drive down food standards.

Nigel Farage admitted he would allow American chlorine-washed chicken to be sold in the UK as part of a free trade deal with the US.

  • Rose@slrpnk.net
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    12 hours ago

    “I’ll drop the tariffs for EU if they accept American beer” -Trump, next week

    (I don’t have much against American beer. But you have to understand that this joke absolutely had to be made. There was no other possible outcome.)

  • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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    13 hours ago

    Or, here’s a crazy idea, the US could start meeting the basic safety and animal welfare standards that the entirety of Europe long ago decided was the basic minimum required for something to be suitable for human consumption.

  • HexesofVexes@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    Or, and here me out here, the UK and EU arrange the most passive aggressive reconciliation ever by removing trade tariffs from one another, then slap a huge tax on any assets owned by the ruler of a foreign nation in their territory.

  • ReiRose@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    There’s no way that the uk is going to be ok with this. It’s gross and not how the world works. Stop it America

    • oo1@lemmings.world
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      12 hours ago

      Don’t be so sure, did you see the quote fom next UK prime minister.

      A total cunt admitted he would allow American chlorine-washed chicken to be sold in the UK as part of a free trade deal with the US.

  • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    The UK maintains non-science-based standards

    Maybe look at who is in charge of your health department before your start complaining about “non-science-based standards”

    • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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      15 hours ago

      They only say “Science-Based” as a dogwhistle to mean “Ignoring what science says about transpeople and substituting my own evidence based on ignorance and vibes.”

    • Lumbardo@reddthat.com
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      16 hours ago

      The “head” of any department is often not a scientist. Scientists conduct technical work, they don’t manage departments or orgs.

      • bollybing@lemmynsfw.com
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        14 hours ago

        Right, but in order to be “science based” you do have to be led by someone who actually believes in and follows scientific consensus.

        Not someone who doesn’t believe viruses are the cause of disease, wants to revisit the fraudulent claim that vaccines cause autism, doesn’t understand that people will die if you stop pasteurising milk etc.

  • SleepyBear@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Wait…does that mean Americans are currently consuming chicken thats been washed in chlorine?! How the FUCK is that up to scientific and health standards??

    • letsgo@lemm.ee
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      13 hours ago

      It’s up to the American standards, for what that’s worth. The chlorine washing makes the meat safe, because the process results in unsafe meat, causing danger to workers (and [speculation]possibly undue suffering for the birds). The EU processes result in meat that doesn’t need to be chlorine washed because the process ensures it is safe.

      So the problem with chlorine washing is not in the end product but in the process that creates it. It’s the EU concern for worker safety that makes chlorine washed chicken problematic.

      I’m not defending the USA here and I oppose imports of chlorinated chicken. Just want to ensure the ire is projected in the appropriate direction. If God forbid that idiot Farage gets some power and we end up with chlorinated chicken then it should be clearly labelled as such so that the British consumer can make an informed FUCK OFF.

      The UK can’t allow the import of chlorinated chicken because then that would shut down our chicken trading, at least, and probably a lot more, with the EU, which is a bigger market than the American one, by about 30%. Fart’s team obviously knows this.

    • Jackoamon@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Honestly, given all the cramped factory farms and wide spread disease in poultry factories, it’s probably good we chlorine them up. Not to say I’d expect another country with better production methods to want to buy our shitty meat though

    • treadful@lemmy.zip
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      23 hours ago

      Most of our tap water has a touch of chlorine to kill off microorganisms. No need to jerk that knee.

      • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        The difference is that the chlorine disperses throughout the water and genuinely kills the bacteria, whereas the chlorine wash for chicken only sanitises the surface of the diseased chicken’s skin and any needle pushed through it. It does nothing to the meat and merely hides bacteria from detection.

        America doesn’t have animal welfare rules anything like like the UK and EU have, and their chickens are usually kept in cramped conditions and bathe in their own filth all day long. It’s not very uncommon for their bellies to be actually rotting.

        Chlorine washes the evidence away.

        • treadful@lemmy.zip
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          9 hours ago

          Criticism of the process is fair, but also an emotional knee jerk reaction over the use of chlorine is still unwarranted.

          • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.world
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            8 hours ago

            It’s not the chlorine, for goodness sake, it’s the disease it hides. Are you not listening? Chlorine wash after death is the only sanitary thing that ever happened to these poor mistreated disease-ridden lame birds. We don’t accept chlorine washed chicken because there’s no easy way to test whether it’s diseased meat or healthy meat.

    • El_Scapacabra@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      Haven’t you heard? It rinses away all the covid from the internal organs. If it works for people it’s definitely good enough for chickens.

    • Exatron@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      It’s not as much of a thing in the US today, but even the European Commission has found that it’s not a problem unless you’re eating 5% of your bodyweight in chlorinated chicken every day. It’s mostly protectionism for European poultry farmers under the guise of safety.

      Sources: European Commission. (2003, April). The evaluation of antimicrobial treatments for poultry carcasses.

      European Commission. (2008, April). Environmental impact and effect on antimicrobial resistance of four substances used for the removal of microbial surface contamination of poultry carcasses

      European Food Safety Authority. (2015). Risks for public health related to the presence of chlorate in food.

      • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        The problem with chlorine washed chicken is NOT the chlorine, it’s the diseased underside of battery chickens who spend all day wading in their own filth and with endemic salmonella which passes tests for disease and bacteria because the chlorine sanitises the outermost layer and any needle that passes through it without killing the source of the problem at all. Americans get food poisoning FAR more often than Europeans, and the disgusting conditions the animals are kept in is a big part of the problem.

        • Aux@feddit.uk
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          13 hours ago

          Yeah, that’s what many Americans don’t understand - chickens in the UK (and EU for that matter) live much much better lives (mostly free range, unless it’s an avian flu pandemic time). And the chlorine ban ensures that.

  • Flax@feddit.uk
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    1 day ago

    Why do they want us to eat their chlorinated chicken so badly? Sounds like an evil agenda coming along…

    We have our own farmers anyway.

    Nigel Farage admitted he would allow American chlorine-washed chicken to be sold in the UK as part of a free trade deal with the US.

    So called “nationalist”, support local farmers.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      So called “nationalist”, support local farmers.

      Nothing more British than shutting down a local business to reap profit from outsourcing. Just ask Thatcher.

    • Ardycake@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      I wasn’t born in the US but find myself living here. The food is awful. Cutting corners and padding some pockets, but listeria outbreaks on our food has become a weekly commonplace. Hundreds of recalls a month. The food is so treated its inedible. I cut almost everything out and buy from imported stores as much as possible. Even European brands often have an American version that is full of junk, so I have to read labels so carefully. I wish it wasn’t this way. No one here wants this.

      • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 day ago

        Yeah, there’s a phenomenon where stereotypically fat Americans move abroad, and suddenly start losing a ton of weight. Not because their eating habits consciously changed, but simply because the food that was readily available was suddenly so much healthier than when they were in America. Almost as if infrastructure has a huge impact on the public’s health.

      • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        No one here wants this.

        I agree with your post otherwise, but clearly the food industry wants things to be the way they are. So, some people want this, and they bought the politicians to make it so.

  • NocturnalEngineer@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    If I remember, Project 2025 also wanted to open up the NHS to “foreign competition” too.

    It won’t stop at just chlorinated chicken.

  • x00z@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    “Free market”

    “Buy our chicken or you will lose your market here”

  • 100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it
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    2 days ago

    Nigel Farage admitted he would allow American chlorine-washed chicken to be sold in the UK as part of a free trade deal with the US.

    God, what a sniveling excuse for a politician.

    • samuelwankenobi@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      Nigel Farage is a trump suck up who was literally paid off or bribed by Elon Musk I would just ignore everything he ever says