{"id":119386,"date":"2025-05-21T09:06:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T09:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/119386\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T09:06:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T09:06:13","slug":"eu-uk-trade-agreement-what-it-means-for-agricultural-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/119386\/","title":{"rendered":"EU-UK trade agreement: What it means for agricultural products"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FollowingFollowing a meeting of European leaders \u2013 the first summit between the EU and the UK since Brexit in 2020 \u2013 it was agreed that the mutual export of agrifood products between the EU and the UK must occur again without certification, border controls or other red tape. Photo: Peter Roek<\/p>\n

The mutual export of agrifood products between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) must occur again without certification, border controls or other red tape. This was agreed at the UK-EU summit.<\/p>\n

The British will \u2018dynamically\u2019 follow EU regulations for products of animal or plant origin. The UK will also contribute financially to European activities around food standards.<\/p>\n

This was agreed during the first summit between the European Union and the United Kingdom since Brexit in 2020, where European leaders met in London yesterday (19 May). Both parties will work on an \u2018unlimited sanitary and phytosanitary agreement\u2019. In return, London must allow European fishermen to have access to British waters until at least 2037. The EU insisted that prime minister Keir Starmer make commitments on this point before the agrifood trade could be arranged.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ<\/b>: EU agriculture from regulation to realism: \u201cNew reality in Brussels and beyond\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Same rules in the EU and the UK <\/b><\/p>\n

The agreement must concern \u2018rules on health, phytosanitary requirements, food safety and general consumer protection for the production, distribution and consumption of agrifood products\u2019. Furthermore, the conditions for live animals and pesticides will also be aligned. \u201cThe agreement must ensure that the same rules always apply in the EU and the UK,\u201d Starmer said, adding that \u201cour teams are working as quickly as possible\u201d to put the agreements into practice.<\/p>\n

Since Brexit, the rules for \u2018third countries\u2019 apply to the export of agrifood to the British market and vice versa, including certifications, inspections and border controls. This results in higher costs and is much more of an administrative burden. The physical checks mean that trucks with fresh products to British customers often have to wait a long time, which causes spoilage.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ<\/b>: EU proposes counter-tariffs \u2013 US grains and soy on the list<\/a><\/p>\n

UK share in Dutch exports down <\/b><\/p>\n

Dutch agricultural exports increased by 4.8% across the board last year, but for the UK this was limited to 0.3%, according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS). The UK\u2019s share in Dutch agricultural exports decreased from 10.5% in 2015, the year before the Brexit referendum, to 7.7% in 2023. The growth of Dutch agricultural exports to the UK is lagging behind other EU markets, with which trade is easier due to the lack of formalities at customs, according to Statistics Netherlands. It is notable that the export of greenhouse materials is actually increasing.<\/p>\n

Producers of food and beverages in the EU do seem to be adapting to the Brexit rules more quickly than their British counterparts. Last year, the EU managed to export \u20ac52.75 billion to Britain, which was 3.3% more than in 2023. This is not only due to price inflation, because volumes also increased considerably. The Dutch share was 1.2% higher at \u20ac9.1 billion, which meant that the country remained the largest foreign supplier. Vegetables accounted for \u20ac912 million of this, chicken \u20ac723 million and potatoes \u20ac651 million. However, the EU share in total British imports fell from 71.5% to 70.7%. Britain\u2019s exports to the EU increased by 0.5% to \u00a316.5 billion, although there was a sharp decline in the volumes.<\/p>\n

\"Peys\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a meeting of European leaders \u2013 the first summit between the EU and the UK since Brexit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,1699,1201,16],"class_list":{"0":"post-119386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-european-union","12":"tag-trade","13":"tag-uk"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114545033138205469","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119386","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=119386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}