Summary of Call for Evidence Responses for CPTPP S42 Advice

Introduction

The UK signed a Free Trade Agreement with the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans pacific Partnership (CPTPP) on 16 July 2023.

As the UK’s Food Safety Authorities with a statutory duty to protect food and feed safety and consumer interests in relation to food and feed across the four nations, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) were asked by the Secretary of State for Business and Trade (DBT) on the 17th July 2023 to provide joint advice on the UK accession to CPTPP.

About the Call for Evidence

This Call for Evidence was issued on issued on 24 July 2023 and closed on 10 September 2023.

The purpose of the Call for Evidence was to gather stakeholder views on the UK’s accession to CPTPP,  regarding provisions relating to trade in agricultural products that may affect the maintenance of UK statutory protections for human health. 

Number of respondents

Summary of responses

Respondents raised concerns that the accession to the CPTPP may affect the UK’s current right to regulate and ability to set its own Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures and lead to potential pressure on the UK to adopt less stringent standards.

Further concerns were raised across four broad areas:

• Food Production Standards 
• Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) and antibiotics use
• Pesticide use
• Equivalence

As set out in the FSA and FSS joint Section 42 Advice, the UK retains the right to regulate and to set its own SPS standards in relation to goods from CPTPP members, entry into force of CPTPP will not require the UK to change any of its food safety legislation. 

The FSA and FSS joint Section 42 Advice for the UK accession to Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership is available on the FSA and FSS website and annexed to the Trade and Agriculture Commission’s Section 42 report found on the gov.uk website.