Donald Trump’s ‘man in London’ today launches an extraordinary broadside against the European Union for ‘strangling innovation’ and attempting to wreck UK and US relations.
Risking a major rift between Washington and Brussels, Woody Johnson, US Ambassador to the UK, accuses Eurocrats of scaremongering in a bid to hinder a ‘revolutionary’ US/UK trade deal.
In a powerful intervention in The Mail on Sunday, the billionaire businessman-turned-diplomat says for too long Britain has been ‘stymied in the EU’ with ‘needless interventions’ and red tape from Brussels.
US President Donald Trump waves next to US Ambassador to UK Woody Johnson as he leaves the latter's residence during his controversial business trip last year
And the major Trump donor takes aim at ‘short-sighted European bureaucrats who put their own political and commercial interests first’.
Mr Johnson highlights the row over the possible import of chlorinated chicken from the US. He says the storm is designed to scare the UK ‘out of doing a great trade deal that would give Britain huge competitive advantage’.
And the tycoon lays the blame firmly at the door of the European Commission, saying the confected row is ‘simply the EU’s way of blocking fair competition’.
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Mr Johnson, who has been the US Ambassador since January 2017, argues that ‘ultimately, the issue of how chicken should be cleaned is just a distraction’.
And he points out that in the UK, ‘you already eat chlorinated salads and drink chlorinated water and until 1997 you ate chlorinated chicken. The fact is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with chlorine washes’.
And he says fears over a treatment given to just one in five US chickens is not a valid reason to risk a comprehensive free trade deal with America, as consumers would still have a choice.
‘At the end of the day, if you don’t want to buy certain types of US chicken – and only around 20 per cent is even washed in chlorine – you won’t have to,’ he writes.
Downing Street said last week: ‘We have always been clear that we will not lower food standards as part of a future trading agreement.’
AMBASSADOR 'WOODY': Don't let the EU's chicken scare stories stop Britain and America striking a magnificent trade deal
Today I will join the nation in enjoying probably the finest of all British institutions: the great Sunday roast. And I suspect that families across the country will sit down at the table this week and end up talking about the topic that has been dominating the news: chlorinated chicken.
We’ve had spirited public debate recently – as you would expect from the great British public. But, ultimately, the issue of how chicken should be cleaned is just a distraction.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again: the very idea of ‘chlorinated chicken’ is simply the EU’s way of blocking fair competition from the American poultry industry.
The fact is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with chlorine washes.
Johnson accuses Eurocrats of scaremongering in a bid to hinder a ‘revolutionary’ US/UK trade deal. The billionaire businessman-turned-diplomat says for too long Britain has been ‘stymied in the EU’ with ‘needless interventions’ and red tape from Brussels
You might disagree with us when we say that it is safer than other methods of cleaning chicken, but it is certainly not unsafe. You already eat chlorinated salads and drink chlorinated water and, until 1997, you ate chlorinated chicken here in Britain.
When you’ve gone on vacation to places such as New York or Vancouver, Tokyo or Shanghai, you probably enjoyed eating it without even thinking about it.
At the end of the day, if you don’t want to buy certain types of US chicken (and only around a fifth is even washed in chlorine), you won’t have to. But there’s no reason to ban it.
Brits are more than capable of making up their own minds about what they buy in the supermarket.
Mr Johnson highlights the row over the possible import of chlorinated chicken from the US. He says the storm is designed to scare the UK ‘out of doing a great trade deal that would give Britain huge competitive advantage’
You might prefer to get the more expensive organic free-range eggs, for example. But you probably don’t want to pass laws saying that other people can’t buy basic eggs.
Britain and America are democracies – we believe in the right of individual consumers to make their
