Entirely predictable (and widely predicted by those pesky experts) that food / agriculture would become a huge issue for the UK in talks with the US - and one which would divide opinions in the Conservative party and normally supportive media. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8373145/Most-Britons-oppose-ditching-animal-welfare-environmental-rules-trade-deal-says-MoS-poll.html

On the other side today a column in the Sunday Times dissected by the NFU's trade lead here. Bear in mind that for many supporters of a US trade deal moving the UK away from EU towards US rules was the point (the economic benefits being sparse) https://twitter.com/nvonwestenholz/status/1267019020080951297

What to do about UK food standards in trade deals? Well when you get to the detail it turns out the aforementioned experts aren't agreed either, on what is or should be part of the global rules set for food (much of which dates back to 1947)

It would have been good to have started this debate on food standards before we started trade talks, rather than previously pretending it away or just being ambiguous (see for example this simple google search and work out the government's position from the headlines...)

My opinion fwiw is that global food rules are outdated and that provided measures are non-discriminatory a country should be able to set our rules in areas like animal welfare and environmental sustainability that they expect imports to meet. These are 21st century challenges.

For the UK what we really need before trade talks is a policy on agriculture - to set out what we actually care about (which might or might not be animal welfare or climate change). Then finding allies and incorporating into trade deals where we can.

The same could also apply to manufacturing, data, services etc. We're negotiating with two of the three major trade powers covering ~70% of our trade to establish the rules of trade without knowing our policies. That's bound to lead to trouble, and it has. /end

PS US food an easy issue for Labour. Another one that conveniently fails to respects former remain / leave positions. Could 'only Labour can be trusted to protect the UK in trade deals' follow? Maybe not, but might be tempting... https://twitter.com/EmilyThornberry/status/1267038674153283585