UK and EU Agree Draft Deal to Scrap Post-Brexit Food Export Checks

The United Kingdom and the European Union have agreed a draft food trade deal that would scrap most of the post-Brexit checks on British food exports to the EU.

A draft sanitary and phytosanitary agreement, known as an SPS deal, covering food, animal and plant trade has been agreed, and a roughly 200 page draft text has been circulated to EU member states in Brussels. EU ambassadors are due to discuss it at a meeting on Wednesday, November 4.

What exporters would no longer pay for

Under the draft, the export health certificates that cost about 200 pounds each would go, along with the phytosanitary, or plant health, certificates that cost about 25 pounds each. The draft could also remove inspection charges, organic certification paperwork, sampling fees and some port charges.

British exports of fresh sausages, burgers, shellfish from UK waters and seed potatoes to the EU could resume under the draft. Those products have faced some of the tightest restrictions since Britain left the bloc.

What Britain gives in return

In return, the UK would commit to dynamic alignment. That means Britain observes and adapts to EU regulations on plant, animal and food trade standards, including future changes to those rules, rather than setting a separate course.

The UK government estimates the agreement could eventually generate 5.1 billion pounds in annual economic benefits. That is a government claim. No methodology for the figure was published in the reporting read for this story.

Wider package and the summit

Draft texts on emissions trading and on a youth travel and work scheme were also shared, along with a draft joint statement for leaders, ahead of a UK and EU summit on November 20. Sources told The Guardian that the SPS text had been settled and would not be renegotiated.

When it would take effect: two answers

The reporting carries two different timelines, and they do not match. The Guardian reported that the deal is not expected to take effect until the first quarter of 2028, because a change of prime minister delayed the summit by six months. The BBC reporting said ministers were aiming for the agreement to take effect in mid 2027.

Northern Ireland and the cost so far

The deal would have a major effect on Northern Ireland. Many checks on goods arriving from Great Britain would disappear and the Not for EU labels on shop shelves would no longer be needed, though customs declarations would remain.

The National Farmers Union said last month that British food exports to the EU had dropped by a third since Britain left the bloc, with eggs, chicken and potato products hit hardest. That drop is the background against which exporters have pressed for the certificates and checks to go.