The UK government is breaking its international commitments by failing to allow proper scrutiny over the environmental impact of UK trade deals, a collation of NGOs has argued.

Organisations including WWF, Compassion in World Farming and the Trade Justice Movement have called for urgent reform of the government’s scrutiny procedures for trade deals which they have branded as “inadequate” amid fears the deals will allow imports of food produced to lower environmental and welfare standards.

The coalition claims the government is in breach of the international Aarhus Convention, which requires law with environmental impacts to receive meaningful public consultation while “options are still open” to enable the content of the law to be changed.

In 2022, WWF and other NGOs filed a complaint under the Convention arguing that current scrutiny arrangements put the UK government in breach of its international commitments. The government has responded by arguing the Aarhus Convention does not apply to free trade agreements.

The group has now filed a legal reply arguing that the government is in breach of the Convention because it has not made adequate provision for public consultation on trade deals, which have huge implications for environmental goals.

The most recent of these is the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a trade bloc spanning 12 economies across Asia and the Pacific region. The government says accession to the bloc will provide a boost for British businesses and deliver billions of pounds in additional trade by removing tariffs on goods including food and drink products.

Campaigners, however, argue the CPTPP creates environmental risks by facilitating food trade with countries with significantly lower environmental standards of production than the UK. The British Egg Industry Council (BEIC), Compassion in World Farming and the RSPCA recently joined forces to urge the government to reconsider its decision to exclude eggs as a sensitive sector in the CPTPP, warning that the deal allows the import of eggs from countries using conventional battery cage systems that were made illegal in the UK in 2012. There are also fears that the deal makes it easier to import products produced using pesticides which would be banned in the UK.

“The UK government’s response to the complaint argues that trade negotiations do not require public participation under the Aarhus Convention and, even if required, their current processes for scrutiny are satisfactory,” said the coalition. “However, these trade deals risk harming the environment at home and globally with no way for MPs or the public to stop this happening. There is very little transparency and very limited public consultation, which the coalition argue are legally required as part of the Aarhus Convention. Together, we are urgently calling on the UK government to allow Parliament and the public a voice on trade agreements now. We must ensure our wild isles in the UK and climate and nature abroad are not sold down the river in exchange for a trade deal.”