Britain is facing renewed pressure from the White House to allow American chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated meat into UK supermarkets, as Donald Trump seeks trade concessions in exchange for reviving a collapsed US-UK technology deal.
The developments were first reported by The Telegraph , which said Washington is urging Sir Keir Starmer to relax Britain’s food standards after talks on a transatlantic tech partnership dramatically broke down earlier this month.
The push is being led by Jamieson Greer, the US trade envoy, who is attempting to secure concessions he failed to obtain when the wider UK-US trade agreement was finalised in May.
Chlorinated chicken has become a potent symbol in British politics. The practice, which involves washing poultry in chlorine to kill bacteria, is permitted in the United States but banned in the UK and across much of Europe.
British regulators argue that allowing such imports would undermine the UK’s “farm to fork” approach, which prioritises hygiene and animal welfare standards throughout the production process rather than relying on chemical treatments at the end.
UK farming groups have warned that opening the market to US poultry would put domestic producers at a severe disadvantage, with cheaper American imports threatening to undercut British farmers, squeeze margins and accelerate the decline of smaller family-run farms.
A source close to the negotiations told The Telegraph that Jamieson Greer “is seeking to use the tech partnership as leverage on trade deal concessions he still wants but that didn’t get the first round”.
The row intensified after the US pulled out of the technology agreement, citing objections to Britain’s Online Safety Act, which Washington says would impose excessive controls on American technology and artificial intelligence companies. According to The Telegraph, the White House is now using the collapse of the tech talks to renew pressure on London over agricultural market access.
For British farmers, the stakes extend beyond poultry. The US is also pushing for greater access for hormone-treated beef, another area where UK standards are stricter than those in America.
Farming unions have warned that accepting such imports would weaken consumer trust in British food and risk eroding the premium attached to UK produce at home and abroad. Sir Keir has previously treated food standards as a red line, rebuffing Mr Trump’s demands to allow chlorinated chicken in exchange for lower tariffs.
However, pressure has mounted since the White House announced sweeping global tariffs in April, accusing the UK of maintaining “non-science-based standards that severely restrict US exports of safe, high-quality beef and poultry products.” Britain’s ban on chlorinated chicken was listed among a series of “non-tariff barriers”.
Any decision to relax those rules would carry significant political and economic consequences. Farming leaders argue it would not only threaten livelihoods in the poultry and beef sectors but also set a precedent for weakening food standards more broadly, potentially reshaping the future of British agriculture in trade negotiations yet to come.
