ZURICH, November 03 (AJP) - Britain and the European Union have agreed on a draft deal that would remove most of the border checks and paperwork imposed on food and farm trade since Brexit, British media reported this week.
The draft of the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement, which covers food safety and animal and plant health, has been circulated to the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) for review. Leaders are expected to announce the deal at a UK-EU summit in Brussels on Nov. 20.
Since new trade rules took effect in 2021, British exporters of animal products have needed health certificates and border inspections for shipments to the EU, adding cost and delay. The deal would scrap most of these checks in both directions.
British food and farm exports to the EU have fallen 22 percent since 2018, according to government figures. The government estimates the deal would eventually add 5.1 billion pounds a year to the British economy.
Some British products banned from the EU since Brexit, such as fresh sausages and burgers, could be sold there again. British pet owners would also be able to use pet passports again when traveling to the EU.
In return, Britain would follow EU rules on food safety and animal and plant health, and would update its own rules whenever the EU changes them. The arrangement is known as dynamic alignment.
The deal is the centerpiece of Prime Minister Andy Burnham's effort to rebuild ties with the EU, Britain's largest trading partner. Burnham replaced Keir Starmer as leader of the governing Labour Party and as prime minister in July.
Britain voted 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the EU in 2016 and formally left in January 2020.
Burnham said in a television interview Tuesday that he had not proposed bringing back free movement of people between Britain and the EU, and that he would "not run ahead of public opinion." He also committed to Labour's manifesto pledge ruling out a return to the EU single market or customs union during this Parliament.
Business groups welcomed the draft, saying it would lower costs and reduce delays for exporters.
Opposition parties criticized it from both directions. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said dynamic alignment would "take us backwards," while the pro-European Liberal Democrats said the deal did not go far enough and called for Britain to rejoin the EU single market.
Draft agreements on linking the two sides' carbon markets and on a youth travel and work program were circulated alongside the food deal.
The deal would also ease checks on goods moving from Britain to Northern Ireland, which has stayed under EU rules for goods since Brexit to keep its land border with Ireland open.
The government aims to bring the agreement into force in mid-2027.
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