UK/EU ‘Re-set’ to boost food and drink opportunities in both directions
The EU and the UK have announced an important deal this week which will significantly ease trade for food and drink exporters targeting either market, by removing much of the documentation and physical checks in place since Brexit. This will save costs for exporters and may ultimately mean more competitively priced products on supermarket shelves.
After 5 years of heat and drama leading up to Brexit, followed by 5 years of near silence since, as UK politicians of all persuasions hesitated to imply Brexit could be watered down in any way, it is now a vastly encouraging step forward to see all parties want to agree to simplify and encourage trade.
Under the agreement it is understood that the need for vet checks will go, and that the UK will once again be able to export shellfish and products like sausages and burgers. While the UK government had continually postponed the implementation of physical checks on EU exporters into the country and ports had invested in infrastructure to manage new arrangements, it now looks like neither will be necessary. It also means that the EU will be able to fish in UK waters for a further 12 years, but the UK fishing sector should also find it easier to sell more to EU markets (70% of their catch is already exported).
The timescales for the roll-out of these changes are not yet in the public domain, but it seems logical – and let’s hope business logic does work occasionally, it hasn’t much during the Brexit debate, let’s face it! – that two trading entities which work to the same food standards and have done business together smoothly and successfully over decades, can swiftly put things in place to the benefit of all concerned.
The UK is a critically important market for many EU exporters. And let’s hope too that this signals to more of them that the UK is not a market to be avoided since Brexit (some had since put it lower down their priorities no doubt), but rather one worth looking at seriously again. While on the other side of the coin, UK exports to the EU have fallen by a third since 2019 and the EU is by far its most important export market, accounting for over 60% of total international sales.
With trade deals with the US (defensive, but avoiding the worst), and India (more wide-ranging and impactful for food and drink) also announced in the last couple of weeks, it seems spring has sprung for international trade!
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