Business news - live: UK told to accept US food standards after Brexit, as British farmers warn of no-deal ‘decimation’
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Britain must accept US food standards such as allowing chlorinated chicken and genetically modified crops as part of any post-Brexit trade deal, the head of America’s powerful farming lobby has suggested.
The comments from Zippy Duval, presiddent of the American Farm Bureau, to the BBC came as British farmers demanded a referendum on any Brexit deal, warning they face “decimation” if the UK crashes out of the EU without an agreement.
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One argument for chlorinated poultry is that it is cheaper.
Zippy Duvall of the American Farm Bureau told the BBC that the UK public should have the right to buy cheaper US produce if they wanted to.
He said:
"A lot of our farmers don't understand why other countries implement tariffs on our products but then they don't want us to implement any tariffs on our end, so we need to level that playing field, tear down all those barriers and let our people be able to make the choice of what food they want to eat and where it's grown at."
Is US chicken really cheaper?
Using US government data from 2015, a report from free-market think tank, The Adam Smith Institute, calculated that US consumers pay 21 per cent less for a kilogram of chicken than their counterparts in the UK.
The think tank has therefore advocated negotiating a trade deal that would allow for imports of chlorine-treated meat. The ASI report does not provide evidence demonstrating a causal link between chlorine washing and cheaper poultry prices in supermarkets. Other factors could also be at play.
Who funds the Adam Smith Institute? No one knows because they won't tell anyone.
One bright spot on a rather gloomy economic vista:
But how long can it last given that UK workers are beocming less productive and business investment is falling?
There's been a lot of talk about the "inverted yield curve" and how it might signal a recession is on the way. (Confused? Here's an explainer)
"Not so fast", says UBS.
According to Mark Haefele, the wealth manager's chief investment officer: "The length of time the yield curve is inverted, and how much is inverted, matter."
"If Fed rate cuts successfully steepen the curve comfortably into positive territory, this brief curve inversion may be a premature recession signal.
"Neither does a yield curve inversion indicate it is time to sell equities. Since 1975, after an inversion in the 2-year/10-year yield curve, the S&P 500 has continued to rally for nearly two years, and has risen by 40% on average until hitting a bull market peak."
TSB has apologised yet again after more problems with its online banking and mobile app.
Customers would not get into their accounts between 4am and 7am on Thursday morning after problems with routine maintenance.
TSB's suffered a disastrous IT meldown last year which caused many people to lose access to online banking services.
Metro Bank is the best bank in the UK for customer service while RBS is the worst, according to a survey by Ipsos Mori.
Just 46 per cent of RBS customers said they would recommend the bank to friends and family compared to 82 per cent of Metro Bank customers.
Jeremy Corbyn's plan to bring down Boris Johnson with a no-confidence vote is boosting the pound.
Sterling is up 0.64 per cent against the dollar to $1.2136 and 0.5 per cent against the euro to €1.088 so far.
Labour says it will attempt to bring down Boris Johnson's government within days of MPs returning to parliament after the summer recess, in an effort to stop a no-deal Brexit.
Senior frontbencher Rebecca Long-Bailey made the remarks as Jeremy Corbyn delivered a dramatic offer to be caretaker prime minister and secure a Brexit extension if he is successful in toppling Mr Johnson.
More from Ashley Cowburn:
If Britain wants a trade deal with the US, it must accept American food standards, including those allowing genetic modification and chicken to be washed in chlorine, the head of America’s farming lobby has said.
Both of those practices are controversial in the UK. Washing chicken carcasses in chlorinated water to kill off harmful bacteria is banned in the EU.
Full story here, from Olesya Dmitracova:
China has threatened retaliation if Washington steps up its war over trade and technology by going ahead with planned 1 September tariff hikes on additional Chinese imports.
Beijing will take unspecified "necessary countermeasures," the Cabinet said in a one-sentence statement. It gave no details or any indication plans for trade talks in Washington in September might be affected.
The mounting tension has unnerved financial markets that worry the global economy will tip into recession.
President Donald Trump says he plans to impose 10 per cent duties on an additional $300bn of Chinese imports, extending penalties to almost everything the United States buys from China.
AP
There is little prospect of any sterling recovery until the Brexit outcome becomes clearer, while a no-deal Brexit may see the pound drop close to $1.05, according to Oxford Economics.
"The promise of further Brexit turmoil in the autumn suggests one of two directions for the UK currency."
(for the avoidance of doubt, that direction is down)
"We think a no-deal Brexit could see the pound drop to just above and just below parity with the US dollar and euro, respectively."
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