The UK and EU have agreed a draft deal on removing post-Brexit checks from food and agriculture exports, ahead of the UK-EU summit later this month.
The BBC understands the 200-page draft text for this so called “SPS” [sanitary and phytosanitary] agreement has been circulated to EU nations in Brussels for consideration at a meeting on Wednesday.
Similar texts for deals on emissions trading and a youth travel and work scheme have also been circulated alongside a 15-page draft joint statement for UK and EU top leaders.
The food deal is the most significant part of the so-called Brexit reset agreed so far, removing checks and red tape that hit exporters after the UK exited the EU’s single market.
The deal should remove the need for £200 Export Health Certificates, £25 Phytosanitary certificates, inspector fees, organic certificates, some port fees, sampling fees and other checks for exports and imports to and from the EU.
UK exports to the EU of fresh sausages, burgers, shellfish from domestic waters and seed potatoes will also be able to resume.
Each of the elements on the table was up for discussion under Sir Keir Starmer, and the summit would have taken place by now had Labour not replaced its leader in July.
Under Andy Burnham, Britain’s approach to post-Brexit relations with the EU have shifted significantly. Sir Keir said the UK would not rejoin the bloc in his lifetime, while Burnham has said he would like to see Britain back in the EU in his.
As a result of the agreement, the government claims the UK economy will eventually see £5.1bn worth of annual benefits.
It will also allow for passports for UK pets to be taken into the EU, while the UK will commit to observing and adapting to existing EU regulations on plant, animal and food trade standards. This process is called “dynamic alignment”.
While UK rules remain mostly aligned with EU ones, there are some areas where England has diverged from the EU rule book, for example on “precision breeding” of plants, previously known as gene editing. In recent weeks, agreement has been struck on transition arrangements while the EU’s new regulations come in to force.
The government has already announced a European Partnerships Bill which will provide a legal mechanism for the application of new EU rules and regulations. This will also allow for the necessary alignments for the linking of the UK emissions trading scheme with the EU’s, and save the need for UK exporters to pay the EU’s new carbon border tax.
The draft agreements will be discussed at a meeting of EU ambassadors called Coreper on Wednesday, with some key details on the planned numbers in a Youth Experience Scheme to be finalised at a political level in the coming days. A discount on full foreign student fees for EU students is likely to be pushed to next year alongside a plan to reconnect electricity markets.
The BBC understands that the draft agreements will also include some references to UK involvement in defence cooperation schemes, access to law enforcement databases and some reassurances over the EU’s “Made in Europe” plans.
A food deal will have particular significance for Northern Ireland, radically reducing the impact of the post-Brexit Irish Sea border.
Northern Ireland’s Brexit deal kept it inside the EU’s single market for goods. That means food products from elsewhere in the UK require paperwork and some physical checks when arriving at NI’s ports. A deal will ultimately end those requirements.
While the food trade plans have been backed by supermarkets and farmers representatives, some pro-Brexit campaigners have criticised the reapplication of EU rules. The post-Brexit trade deal signed by Boris Johnson’s government prioritised regulatory freedoms for the UK over avoiding new regulatory red tape, checks and delays.
But William Bain, the British Chamber of Commerce’s (BCC) head of trade policy, told the BBC’s Today programme that business overall thought that it was a “price is worth paying” to follow common rules, as companies would benefit from “lower costs, reduced delays [and] increased market access”.
At the moment, he said, the requirement for Export Health Certificates can add thousands of pounds of costs to each truck carrying goods, in addition “to the delays that people find at the ports or at the borders”.
“So we get lower exports because of the delays and the massive increases in costs that have come into the supply chain.”
The BCC has released a new analysis of its members’ views suggesting options for a closer relationship.
The business lobby group says the current trade relationship is “failing to deliver”, leaving firms “struggling with a thicket of Brexit red tape” nearly six years after the UK’s exit from the bloc.
It also pointed to economic analysis of more fundamental changes to the UK-EU relationship, suggesting the largest long-term economic boosts from rejoining the single market or the EU itself. The BCC called on government to analyse and publish options, as it consults its members.
The BCC is calling for an exploration of what a new relationship could look like, and offers nine options, including a customs union, a “Swiss-style” Single Market relationship, and a “Canada model” associate membership.
“The evidence from businesses suggests that the prime minister is right to have initiated a conversation on our future relationship with Europe, and he deserves real credit for having done so,” said Shevaun Havilland, director general of the BCC.
“Government needs to examine all of the options, remain clear-headed about the trade-offs each involves, and involve business in the decision-making process from the start.”
More than half (56%) of exporting businesses in a BCC survey said they wanted EU customs paperwork and delays removed so they can grow. That rose to 58% of manufacturers.
The prime minister has said he wants to use this month’s summit to launch a conversation on a longer term path for the UK’s relationship with the EU, including “going all the way”, meaning rejoining the bloc.
By BBC News
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