UK and EU agree draft deal to scrap Brexit red tape on food exports

The draft text

The UK and the EU have agreed a draft deal on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) rules for food and agricultural trade, according to reports published on Tuesday, 3 November. The text runs to 200 pages and has been sent to EU member states in Brussels ahead of a meeting of ambassadors on Wednesday, 4 November. Sources told The Guardian that the text is settled and will not be renegotiated. Similar drafts cover emissions trading and a youth travel and work scheme, and a 15-page draft joint statement for the leaders has also been circulated, according to the BBC. The food deal is the most significant element of the so-called Brexit reset agreed so far.

What the deal would remove

According to the BBC, the agreement would end the need for export health certificates, phytosanitary certificates, inspection fees, organic certificates, some port fees and sampling fees on trade with the EU. The BBC puts the cost of two of these documents at £200 for an export health certificate and £25 for a phytosanitary certificate. Exports of fresh sausages, burgers, shellfish from British waters and seed potatoes could resume, and UK pets could again enter the EU with passports. In exchange, the UK would commit to observing and adapting to existing EU rules on plant, animal and food standards, a mechanism known as "dynamic alignment".

Export health certificate200

Phytosanitary certificate25

Export health certificate

200 £

Phytosanitary certificate

25 £

Data from the article text

Trade losses and the economic case

The National Farmers' Union said in October that British food exports to the EU had collapsed by a third since Brexit, with eggs, chicken and potato products hit hardest. Trade with Europe has also fallen by a third since 2019. Small delicatessens and other retailers would again be able to buy smaller batches of cheese and wine, something that had become impossible once checks introduced in 2022 raised costs. The government claims the UK economy will eventually gain £5.1bn in annual benefits. William Bain, trade policy director at the British Chambers of Commerce, described the shared rules as a cost business considers worth accepting for lower costs and faster market access.

Timing and the summit

The deal is not expected to take effect until the first quarter of 2028, because a change of UK prime minister delayed the second EU-UK summit by six months. That summit is now due on 20 November, when Andy Burnham and EU leaders are expected to issue a joint statement. When the deal was largely agreed in May, Defra said it expected implementation the following May, but it has now told industry the timetable may slip to 2028. Key products such as grains grown this year with fungicides not yet approved in the EU would get a further six-month transition. The delay follows from the need to dynamically align British food standards legislation with the EU's rules.

The youth experience scheme is still being negotiated, and the UK has made an 11th-hour proposal on tuition fees for young Europeans to break a deadlock. In late October the European Commission was concerned enough that EU ambassadors discussed decoupling the fees issue and negotiating it separately for another six months.

Northern Ireland reaction

The DUP leader Gavin Robinson said the agreement does not go far enough and shows a lack of ambition from the government. Under current rules Northern Ireland already follows EU SPS rules, which led to the Irish Sea border with checks on goods arriving from the rest of the UK. The draft would scrap those checks only if Great Britain aligns in the same way. Robinson, speaking to BBC Radio Ulster on Tuesday, said he disagreed with the government's approach:

“I don't agree with the Government's approach to their engagement with the European Union.”

Robinson also argued that customs arrangements still treat Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the UK. The DUP had collapsed powersharing at Stormont for two years between 2022 and 2024 in protest at these barriers, returning in early 2024 after the previous Conservative government agreed the Windsor Framework with the EU.

Political backdrop

Andy Burnham, the prime minister, has said he has not proposed a return to freedom of movement between the UK and the EU. He did call for an honest discussion about how temporary migration from Europe has given way to long-term settlement in larger numbers since Brexit. The Conservative Party under former prime minister Boris Johnson had firmly rejected dynamic alignment during the original Brexit negotiations with the EU.