UK and EU reach final deal to lift post-Brexit checks on food trade

The United Kingdom and the European Union (EU) have reached a final agreement to withdraw post-Brexit restrictions and border checks on imports and exports of food and animal products. A wide range of traded goods, from sausages and cheese to leather products and flowers, comes under the understanding.

Alongside it, several supplementary agreements are set to be signed at the UK-EU summit to be held on 20 November. Through those agreements, the path will open for Britain to rejoin Europe's single electricity market.

However, as a condition of returning to the single electricity market, the UK will again have to make a financial contribution to the EU's central budget. The joint draft says that for the UK's participation in parts of the EU internal market, an appropriate financial contribution must be ensured, aimed at reducing economic and social disparities within the European area and reflecting the scale of the UK's participation.

The step will bring major commercial relief for British food exporters. At the same time, small UK retailers will regain the opportunity to import limited quantities of specialist cheese and wine at lower cost, something that had effectively stopped because of the Brexit border restrictions and extra costs imposed in 2022.

This sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement had already been finalised in principle last May. The 200-page legal outline is now final, and there will be no further bargaining on it.

However, because the summit was delayed by a change of government and leadership in the UK, full implementation of the deal will not be possible before the first quarter of 2028, according to sources concerned. The obligation to align British food standards law with the EU is seen as the main reason implementation is slipping to 2028.

Last month the National Farmers' Union (NFU) said UK food exports to the EU market had fallen by a third since Brexit took effect. Eggs, chicken and processed potato products were among those hit hardest.

The draft joint statement to be placed before a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels says the new SPS deal will ensure free movement of most animals, animal products and plants between Britain and the EU, and that the strict certificates and controls now in force will not be needed. Because UK and EU environmental policies are aligned, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will not apply to British goods.

The deal has split unionist politics in Northern Ireland. Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson described the step as a government 'lack of initiative' and claimed it falls short of expectations.

By contrast, Ulster Unionist Party Windsor Framework spokesperson Steve Aiken cautiously welcomed the understanding, saying that if the deal takes effect, checks on most agricultural products coming from the rest of the country will fall significantly, if not entirely.

Under the proposed framework, the mandatory 'Not for EU' labelling requirement for goods sold in the Northern Ireland market is also being removed, a rule that had previously drawn strong criticism from major supermarket authorities.

Showing how extreme post-Brexit border paperwork had become, a transport leader previously told a parliamentary committee that the paperwork complications were 'hell'. For want of the correct certificate for a single consignment of frozen meat, one lorry had to wait in France for as long as 27 days.