Part of Agriculture Bill - Commons Amendments – in the House of Lords at 3:33 pm on 9 November 2020.
Moved by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
That this House do not insist on its Amendments 16B and 18B, to which the Commons have disagreed; and do agree with the Commons in their Amendments 18C and 18D in lieu of Lords Amendments 16B and 18B.
18C: After Clause 39, Page 36, line 24, at end insert the following new Clause—“Reports relating to free trade agreements(1) A free trade agreement that includes measures applicable to trade in agricultural products may not be laid before Parliament under Part 2 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 unless the Secretary of State has first laid a report complying with subsection (2) before Parliament.(2) The report must explain whether, or to what extent, the measures referred to in subsection (1) are consistent with the maintenance of UK levels of statutory protection in relation to—(a) human, animal or plant life or health,(b) animal welfare, and(c) the environment.(3) In subsection (2) “UK levels of statutory protection” means levels of protection which, at the time the report is made, are provided for by or under any legislation which has effect in, or in any part of, the United Kingdom.(4) In preparing the report, the Secretary of State may seek advice from any person the Secretary of State considers to be independent and to have relevant expertise.(5) When the Secretary of State lays the report before Parliament the Secretary of State must also provide a copy of it to—(a) the Scottish Ministers,(b) the Welsh Ministers,(c) DAERA, and(d) any Committee of the House of Commons or the House of Lords or any Joint Committee of both Houses that appears to the Secretary of State to have an interest in the subject matter of the report.(6) This section does not apply in relation to a free trade agreement if—(a) each party to the agreement (other than the United Kingdom) is a member State or the European Union, or (b) the following conditions are met—(i) the negotiations for the agreement were concluded before the second anniversary of IP completion day,(ii) each party to the agreement (other than the United Kingdom) and the European Union were, immediately before exit day, parties to another free trade agreement which includes measures applicable to trade in agricultural products, and(iii) the other free trade agreement was, immediately before exit day, in force for, or being provisionally applied by, each party to that agreement.(7) In this section— “agricultural products” means products of a kind which, at the time this section comes into force, is listed in—(a) Annex 1 to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union;(b) Annex 1 to Regulation (EU) No 510/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of
18D: Title, line 11, after “carcasses;” insert “to make provision for reports relating to free trade agreements;”