{"id":660968,"date":"2025-12-29T20:23:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T20:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/660968\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T20:23:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T20:23:22","slug":"delay-to-post-brexit-deal-costs-uk-100m-a-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/660968\/","title":{"rendered":"Delay to post-Brexit deal costs UK \u00a3100m a week,\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) <\/strong>agreement <\/strong>would align Britain\u2019s standards with those of the EU, removing the need for most certificates and checks on animals and plants being transported between the UK and the bloc.<\/p>\n

The deal, predicted to slash hugely expensive red tape and vastly increase the volume of imports and exports to and from the EU, is worth up to \u00a314m a day to the UK economy, according to new research carried out by the House of Commons Library. This has led to calls for ministers to speed up the process.<\/p>\n

But the government has hit back at opposition politicians, denouncing it as a \u201cshame\u201d that they are not supporting Labour\u2019s progress in securing closer ties with the bloc.<\/p>\n

Ursula von der Leyen confirmed in May that the UK and EU had agreed to work towards a common SPS arrangement (PA)<\/p>\n

The new analysis looked at the planned UK-EU<\/a> food and drink deal and concluded that it could be worth up to \u00a314m per day once the British \u201ceconomy has fully adjusted to the new system\u201d.<\/p>\n

That figure may vary, and go up or down across the year, with \u201cvariations depending on things like whether it is a weekend, a bank holiday, a busier time of year and so on\u201d, it said.<\/p>\n

Al Pinkerton, the Liberal Democrats\u2019 Europe spokesperson, who commissioned the analysis, said: \u201cThe government went to great lengths to show off their shiny new plans to agree an SPS deal with the EU in May. Six months later, there\u2019s nothing to show for it, and the British public are millions of pounds worse off a day because of their inaction.\u201d <\/p>\n

He added: \u201cMinisters must stop dithering, grip this economic crisis and deliver the SPS deal they\u2019ve promised \u2013 finally cutting the reams of red tape holding British business back.\u201d <\/p>\n

But a government spokesperson hit back, saying: \u201cWe secured a landmark deal with the EU in May, resetting our relationship to deliver for the public.\u201d They added: \u201cIt\u2019s a shame the Lib Dems aren\u2019t backing this progress or supporting the government as negotiations continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Government insiders said talks on the deal started once the EU had agreed a negotiating mandate between its 27 member states. The agreement would support British jobs and businesses and bring down prices, they said. <\/p>\n

Brexit cost UK business \u00a337bn in the 12 months to last September, it emerged earlier this year. This led ministers to pledge to \u201ctear down\u201d the trade barriers between Britain and the EU. The figures also showed that total trade with the EU was 5 per cent lower than before Britain left the bloc.<\/p>\n

An estimated 16,400 businesses \u2013 some 14 per cent of UK exporters \u2013 stopped exporting to the EU as a result of Brexit trade rules, according to one study by the Centre for Economic Performance at the LSE, while others have never started. <\/p>\n

This is likely to be in part because of the increased complexity of new export regulations. The supermarket giant Marks &Spencer has said that it has had to rent a warehouse just to store the paperwork<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Keir Starmer has been urged to break the Brexit economic \u2018doom loop\u2019 (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Negotiations between the UK and the EU on the SPS deal began in late November. Ministers believe the agreement with the UK\u2019s largest agri-food trading partner could increase the volume of UK exports of major agricultural commodities to the EU by 16 per cent, and increase imports from the EU by 8 per cent. <\/p>\n

Overall, cuts to red tape and other costs could deliver savings to business worth up to \u00a31m a month, the government estimates. At the moment, businesses are required to obtain expensive certificates and checks, including export health certificates to bring food across the border \u2013 which costs up to \u00a3200 for every consignment.<\/p>\n

Naomi Smith, the chief executive of pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain, which has been calling for an SPS deal since May 2023, said the economic impact of Brexit is affecting people \u201cevery single day\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost of living, sluggish economic growth and poor productivity in the UK are all compounded by our feeble trading relationship with the EU, and it\u2019s high time negotiators on both sides work faster to break this doom loop,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement would align Britain\u2019s standards with those of the EU, removing the need…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[1500,802,748,4044,2000,299,5187,1699,5686,4884,5681,12,5683,5682,5684,5685,16,15,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-660968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-brexit","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-daily-news","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-european","15":"tag-european-union","16":"tag-global-news","17":"tag-great-britain","18":"tag-inkl","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-news-app","21":"tag-news-headlines","22":"tag-news-today","23":"tag-today-news","24":"tag-uk","25":"tag-united-kingdom","26":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115804727751955883","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660968","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=660968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}