Donald Trump may ban Scottish salmon imports if Britain blocks substandard US food such as chlorinated chicken and hormone-injected beef being sold in the UK

America could ban the import of Scottish salmon if Britain blocks substandard US foods such as chlorinated chicken from being sold here, diplomatic sources have revealed.

Ministers have vowed not to relax British food standards in the rush to secure post-Brexit trade deals – but the Government’s reluctance to enshrine such protections in law is set to spark a Commons rebellion tomorrow.

Washington’s threat of tit-for-tat action if intensively farmed US goods are not allowed into the UK is a stark indication of the sort of pressure British negotiators will be under to open the door to lower standards of food.

America could ban the import of Scottish salmon if Britain blocks substandard US foods such as chlorinated chicken from being sold here, diplomatic sources have revealed

Representatives of the US have warned that if London does try to stop the import of chickens or hormone-injected beef, then Donald Trump’s administration could take similar action to target the lucrative farmed salmon industry, which is especially important to the Scottish economy.

The American negotiators will cite growing concerns about the environmental impact of salmon farming, especially caused by the 146,000 fish which escape on average from cages in Scottish waters every year.

They cause pollution from faecal waste and chemicals they have been treated with, as well as damage to wild fish stocks through inter-breeding.

As The Mail on Sunday’s Sarah Sands wrote in last week’s newspaper, Storm Ellen wrecked a salmon farm in Carradale harbour in August, allowing 50,000 salmon to escape into the path of migrating Atlantic wild salmon. 

Scotland is the world’s third-largest producer of farmed salmon, behind Norway and Chile, with Britons eating an astonishing eight million salmon meals a week.

Ministers have vowed not to relax British food standards in the rush to secure post-Brexit trade deals – but the Government’s reluctance to enshrine such protections in law is set to spark a Commons rebellion tomorrow

Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish government is determined to boost the economy north of the border by doubling the value of farmed salmon by 2030 in a bid to back the argument that an independent Scotland could stand on its own two feet economically.

But environmental concerns persist. As well as the escaped stocks, the 30 million salmon harvested in the country each year are also frequently infected with sea lice, which is tackled with an organophosphate nerve agent called azamethiphos.

Discussions over a US trade deal have reached the fourth stage – out of seven – which one source close to the negotiations says means that ‘we have dealt with the easy 75 per cent of the talks’. 

Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish government is determined to boost the economy north of the border by doubling the value of farmed salmon by 2030 in a bid to back the argument that an independent Scotland could stand on its own two feet economically

However, the contentious issue of food standards is still to be resolved.

Some Tory MPs hope that if Joe Biden beats Donald Trump in next month’s presidential election, he will take a less hardline attitude, possibly incorporating the UK in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

The partnership involves 11 other nations and an agreement would leave high food standards rules largely unchanged.

A source at the Department for International Trade said: ‘Given that chlorinated chicken is already banned in the UK, for the United States to impose new tariffs on our produce would be illegal and something that we would fight hard against.’

A spokesman for International Trade Secretary Liz Truss insisted the UK would not relax standards to secure a US trade deal.

The spokesman said: ‘This Government has been absolutely clear that it will not sign a trade deal that will compromise our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food safety standards.

‘We are a world leader in these areas and that will not change.’

Dirty Secrets of American Food: Coming To A Supermarket Near You? is on Channel 4 at 8pm tomorrow

90% of meat in US ‘harbours E. coli’

By Claudia Joseph for the Mail on Sunday

American meat and poultry is routinely contaminated with E.coli and salmonella, a public health expert has claimed.

Researchers found that 90 per cent of turkey products, 80 per cent of chicken, 70 per cent of beef and 60 per cent of pork on US shelves show unacceptable levels of E.coli, indicating contact with faeces.

Meanwhile, 13 per cent of American pork on sale is contaminated with salmonella – six times higher than in the UK – according to Dr Lance Price, of George Washington University.

Dr Price, whose findings are revealed in a Channel 4 Dispatches investigation, also found that almost half the samples proved resistant to at least one of America’s six most common antibiotics.

‘It’s a real risk in human health because if somebody has a serious infection with one of these pathogens, and it’s resistant to the antibiotics that the doctor would use to treat them, then they could die,’ he told the programme.

‘We have unequivocal, clear evidence that antibiotic use in animals leads to antibiotic-resistant infections in people.’

American livestock are treated with five times more antibiotics per pound than in the UK and six of the antibiotics used by farmers are classified by the World Health Organisation as ‘critically important’ to human medicine.

Dr Price fears that their overuse could have serious repercussions on public health as the bacteria resistance to antibiotics is rising.

‘When you raise animals in a crowded, unsanitary condition, or give them feed they’re not evolved to eat, they get diseases,’ he said.

‘Instead of changing the way we’re producing the animals, we give them antibiotics.’