THE Ulster Farmers\u2019 Union (UFU) says the confirmation this week of a new UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement is a major step forward for Northern Ireland\u2019s agri-food industry.<\/p>\n
The deal, which includes the removal of routine SPS checks and paperwork on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, will reduce red tape for businesses and ease trade burdens that have existed since the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol.<\/p>\n
UFU President William Irvine said: \u201cThis is a significant breakthrough. A huge amount of work has gone in at UFU level over many years to get to this point.<\/p>\n
“The majority of what we have been lobbying for is now reflected in this agreement.<\/p>\n
“It brings real, long-term certainty for our members and the wider agri-food industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn end to burdensome SPS paperwork, removal of checks on goods moving to Northern Ireland, inclusion of second-hand machinery, progress on the movement of live cattle, pesticide regulations and rules on organics \u2013 these are all key wins.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the agreement does not include veterinary medicines, which are currently not classified as SPS, the UFU acknowledge that this is the beginning of a detailed process rather than the conclusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis deal isn\u2019t going to remove all obstacles overnight \u2013 it will take up to 18 months to implement, and much of the content will be complex and require further clarification.<\/p>\n
“But it\u2019s a step in the right direction. We must now get into the detail and ensure it delivers in practice,\u201d said Mr. Irvine.<\/p>\n
The UFU is calling for sustained stakeholder engagement throughout the implementation phase.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe strongly encourage the government to make time for meaningful engagement with the agri-food industry as part of this process.<\/p>\n
“This is a good start \u2013 now the hard work continues to make it count,\u201d said Mr. Irvine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE Ulster Farmers\u2019 Union (UFU) says the confirmation this week of a new UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[52949,748,393,4884,1144,712,52947,52946,16,15,1764,52948],"class_list":{"0":"post-118377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-agri-food-industry","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-sps","17":"tag-ufu","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-wales","21":"tag-william-irvine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114542924609646162","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}