By Caroline Hager
Four months ago, the UK-EU summit on 19 May agreed to deepen cooperation with the EU on a wide-range of areas. The summit marked an important reset of UK-EU relations with positive signs of openness on both sides.
Today, with many horrific and worrying events dominating the headlines, it’s easy to overlook the importance of quickly translating the different areas of the May deal into practice. A sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement was seen by many as a key part of May’s UK-EU “common understanding”. The agri-food sector is one of the UK’s largest industries employing four million people across the whole food chain, including agriculture, food and drink manufacture, wholesaling, retailing and catering. In Cornwall, the agri-food sector accounts for one in five jobs. Last month the UK’s EU affairs minister, the Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, announced that negotiations on the new SPS agreement will begin this autumn. These talks cannot start soon enough for the UK’s agri-food businesses, so badly affected by Brexit and the end of the single market. Cornish fishermen reported that their catches were being left to rot due to the bureaucracy holding up exports to the EU.
So, what are SPS measures and why are these so important?
Sanitary standards protect human and animal health, making sure meat, milk, or fish are safe to consume, free from harmful bacteria or chemicals. Phytosanitary standards protect plant health, for example preventing pests, plant diseases, or invasive species from spreading through trade in seeds, fruits, or timber. These rules are important in international trade of food, animals, and plants to ensure imported goods meet safety standards and to avoid unfair restrictions on trade. For example, the EU might require that imported apples are free of a certain insect (phytosanitary) or that imported beef is tested for specific diseases (sanitary). SPS rules reassure people that food, animals, and plants crossing borders are safe.
When the UK was part of the EU single market, there were no checks on food and plant exports, as the UK followed the EU SPS regulations to allow its goods to move freely across borders. Today, everyday trade like cheese, sausages, or seeds require paperwork and export certificates. These checks cause long delays and costs for businesses in UK. Meat exports, for example, need an export health certificate signed by a vet and certain chilled meats – sausages, minced meat – can no longer be exported to the EU unless there are special agreements. Likewise, fish produce has suffered with delays causing spoilage. Many small businesses have been forced to stop trading. Recent government figures estimate that UK companies spent up to £65 million on licences to export food and agricultural products to the EU. The UK’s agri-food exports to the EU have fallen by 21% since 2018.
According to Baroness Jones, cited in EM’s Brexit Watch, “talks with the EU remain at an early stage, following May’s ‘common understanding’, and could require primary legislation.” Nick Thomas-Symonds has suggested that a new agreement with the EU could be in place by 2027, promising that businesses and consumers would see tangible impacts. Benefits will include scrapping most routine border checks on food and agricultural products moving between the UK and EU, allowing faster trade across the UK and EU border, with less paperwork and at lower costs for businesses.
A new SPS agreement will not be an easy ride: the UK will have to “dynamically” align its legislation with SPS rules, which means becoming part of the EU’s regulatory framework without any say in new laws. In other words, the UK government has accepted to rejoin the single market to benefit an important economic sector. However, according to EU news platform Euroactiv, the UK will seek to maintain important national rules such as those for gene-edited crops and its higher animal welfare standards. A major sticking point will be whether any disputes would go to international arbitration, as the UK would wish, or fall under the European Court of Justice, as the EU mandate suggests. Brexiters will be ready to pounce!
Guaranteeing all important EU market access for British farmers, food and shell-fish exporters is urgent. But there will be a lot of details to chew over and political sensitivities to overcome.
