Trump tells UK to buy chlorinated chicken from US if it wants tariff relief
Trump tells UK to buy chlorinated chicken from US if it wants tariff relief
The UK has long-ruled out allowing imports of chlorine-washed chicken from the US, with Rachel Reeves in November reiterating her opposition
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.
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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.”
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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.
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.
Then how could they poison everyone as cheaply as possible?
"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.)
For now it's a "joke", next week it'll be recorded history
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.
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"
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."
The "head" of any department is often not a scientist. Scientists conduct technical work, they don't manage departments or orgs.
The criticism isn't that RFK isn't a scientist.
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
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.
Chlorinated chicken dipped in swimming pool water
Shut the fuck up Donny, you're out of your element.
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??
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.
It's up to the American standards, for what that's worth.
Honestly, not much.
Do you drink tap water?
It's not the chlorine that's the problem, it's the disease it masks from testing.
Tap water isn't chlorinated in most of Europe as well
First thing I did after moving to the US for a few months was buying a water filter.
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.
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.
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
The chlorine only sanitises the outside and any needle that passes through it.
Most of our tap water has a touch of chlorine to kill off microorganisms. No need to jerk that knee.
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.
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.
A 2014 report by US non-profit Consumer Reports found that 97 per cent of 300 American chicken breasts tested contained harmful bacteria, including Salmonella, campylobacter and E.Coli.
Around half of the chicken breasts tested also contained at least one type of bacteria that was resistant to three or more antibiotics.
Meanwhile, if you ate a large amount of chlorinated chicken – the equivalent to 5 per cent of your body weight in one day –you could be exposed to harmful levels of the chemical compound known as chlorate,
Yeah, I'd suggest holding out on this one. The way US farms raise chickens is deplorable and leads to the spread of disease.
Americans tend to be unhealthy af for a reason. Regulatory capture is a major issue in our ever more corrupt government.
We are fed garbage from birth and become immediately addicted to it. And no one knows how to cook anymore (exaggeration, but not by too much).
I'm glad people say these things, because it reminds me that the death of critical thought isn't strictly an American crisis
That’s absolutely
I think we should not overinterpret this. Lets walk through it backwards.
5% of your body weight in chicken in one day? Assuming you are a small thin person of 55 kg. That means you would need to eat around 2.9 kg of chicken in a day. If you were a 80kg tall person, you'd be looking at eating 4 kg of chicken in a day. Neither is realistic imo.
Now antibiotic resistance bacteria definetly is an issue.
As for harmful bacteria including Salmonella... Unless there is data to compare with from other countries that does not mean much in itself. Raw chicken is notorious for giving food poisioning and being much more dangerous in that regard than raw beef, pork, or even fresh fish. I got a very bad food poisoning from undercooked chicken not to long ago and that was in the EU.
Doesn't mean that US farming practices aren't much worse than most EU standards (if enforced), but these metrics mentioned by themselves are not the best indicators for that.
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.
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
"Free market"
"Buy our chicken or you will lose your market here"
generally kinda fucked up to think about raw meat being bulk shipped across oceans anyways
Oh boy if you think that’s fucked up: They take American chickens, send them to China to process, then ship them back to the USA to sell to us.
Of course, the crazy works both ways: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/why-is-china-treating-north-carolina-like-the-developing-world-122892/
The only time that doesn't seem f-ed up is when you stand outside the processing plants, here or there...
Nigel Farage admitted he would allow American chlorine-washed chicken
Annnnd there you have it.
If I remember, Project 2025 also wanted to open up the NHS to "foreign competition" too.
It won't stop at just chlorinated chicken.
Yuck! American "food". In general, not just chicken.
I was in Atlanta recently, and our allergy kid wanted to eat a cake at a family party, so I told them to check the ingredients. They couldn't understand the list and brought it to me. There was no wonder, the list was full of artificial everything. And here I thought the UK's UPF was bad - I was shocked that cake was even considered food.
Well, with American bread being so loaded with corn syrup that it is considered "cake" in Europe, one should not be surprised.
And as the American attitude to those "artificial everythings" is to include them as long as they are not proven unsafe, in contrast to the European that you can only include them if they have proven generally safe, there are a lot of things you won't find in European ingredient lists. For some of those items, it takes the US decades to withdraw them from the "suitable for food" list, sometimes even after some thrid world countries considered them illegal.
US made food items, never safe to even bring into a kitchen. Look at the general US obesity, to get scared
Indeed. Common main ingredient: HFCS.
How does the chicken cross the Atlantic?
We're back to the chicken tax... it's the reason why 'Muricans all drive big pickup trucks:
Frozen in vacuum sealed bags, to get to the other side.
A literal "Eat sh@€ or die!".
Shateuro?
Yuk, who in the right mind would eat that crap
Most Americans, it's the same stuff fast food places use for fried chicken. KFC, Chick-fil-A, Popeyes are very popular here in the US!
It's sold in grocery stores here too. Has the odor of an indoor swimming pool. We can sometimes fine "air chilled" chicken which is usually not chlorinated but is always more expensive.
Didn't this guy also just remove food regulation in USA? Smert move!
EU should respond by banning all type of chicken from US
Non-science based? The science disagrees.
Strangely, this may be the one time when the science agrees with them.
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.
While pushing all-feelings no-facts reduction of vaccinations
And that was the whole point of the tariffs.
The ban on those gross chicken imports was one of the major points of the US’ declining relationship with Russia under Obama. And then they also banned the US adoption industry from trafficking out kids, and the Dems went full-blown Russophobia.
<s>
The annexation of the Crimean peninsula definitely had nothing to do with it. Nah. Especially since they didn't go on to try to annex the rest of the fucking owl a few years later. </s>
Numbskull.
Edit: See Here for evidence that this guy is arguing in bad faith.