I strongly reject the idea that food is somehow exempt. This is moral posturing and, like the noxious and genocidal anti-GMO position, is being used as a cloak for frank protectionism by ag interests that would be destroyed by superior overseas competition.
Not at all. I am reticent to tell others what they should do within their own borders. Treaties regarding external interactions are important.
> This is moral posturing
It is not posturing to prefer that I not have to personally vet the provenance of everything I buy in the grocery store. We know what happens when there is insufficient regulation of food. You get melamine in infant formula because it boosted somebody's profit margin.
Anyway, what trade treaties require is that health regulations have a rational basis, not be merely pretexts for protectionism. Too much of what I see from Europe is the latter, not the former.
You have not made to me a compelling case that a legitimate concern over what one allows into one's food supply is an external interaction.
We certainly should have free trade for fungible goods and services. Anything we permit to be made and sold internally we should permit to be imported. But we should have the power to regulate hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides in food and we should respect the decisions of other countries to regulate what they permit in their food.