Germany believes China, India and the US should be forced to adopt higher environmental and health standards if they want to export food products to the European Union, says Horst Seehofer, Germany’s farm minister

… & when the German’s start to make any sort of demands we know that it’s time to dust down Bomber Command’s old target maps. However its not just the boxheads that are currently on the foodie high horse …

[Seehofer’s] comments echo calls by Paris for new EU barriers to free trade in response to rising global demand for food. Michel Barnier, France’s farm minister, last month called for curbs on “free-market liberalism”, a view reflected by Mr Seehofer: “We need more market liberalisation, but under fair conditions.”

“This does not mean more protectionism. We do not want to isolate the EU but to apply EU standards in other parts of the world.”

Nothing like the Franco-German two step to have you reaching for your SMLE & sword bayonet. Now dear readers compare the above Euro moral high ground with this …

European poultry producers are using a chlorine-washing process on exported chicken, while the same cleaning method in the US has led to a de facto ban on American sales in the EU

May I refer you to this mornings earlier post on tariffs & protectionism. As for those duplicitous continental politicans & if don’t have one of the Enfield Work’s excellent products close to hand, please feel free to avail yourselves of one of the many trees that surround Free Market Towers.

Mrs FM always has an ample supply of well oiled hemp rope cut to an appropreiate length. To my mind, the rotting corpses of load of Eurocrats swinging gently in the breeze would certainly make excellent wind chimes. Besides the rooks need feeding.