UK and EU strike draft deal to scrap £200 Brexit food export certificates

UK exporters would no longer pay £200 Export Health Certificates under a 200-page draft food trade deal the UK and EU have agreed ahead of this month's UK-EU summit, the BBC understands.

The draft text for the so-called SPS — sanitary and phytosanitary — agreement has gone to EU nations in Brussels for consideration at a meeting on Wednesday. Draft texts on emissions trading and a youth travel and work scheme circulated alongside it, plus a 15-page draft joint statement for UK and EU leaders.

The food deal is the most significant piece of the so-called Brexit reset agreed so far. It would remove checks and paperwork that hit exporters after the UK left the EU's single market.

What disappears for exporters?

The agreement scraps a stack of costs on trade in both directions:

• £200 Export Health Certificates
• £25 Phytosanitary certificates
• Inspector fees, organic certificates and some port fees
• Sampling fees and other export and import checks

The government claims the UK economy will eventually gain £5.1bn in annual benefits from the package.

UK exports of fresh sausages, burgers, shellfish from domestic waters and seed potatoes to the EU could resume. Pet passports for UK animals travelling to the EU would also return.

What has the UK given up?

In exchange, the UK commits to observing and adapting to existing EU rules on plant, animal and food standards — a process called "dynamic alignment". UK rules mostly track EU ones already, but England has diverged in some areas, notably on "precision breeding" of plants, previously known as gene editing. In recent weeks, the two sides struck transition arrangements while new EU regulations come into force.

The government has introduced a European Partnerships Bill to give new EU rules legal effect in the UK. The bill would also enable linking the UK emissions trading scheme with the EU's, sparing UK exporters the EU's new carbon border tax.

EU ambassadors, meeting as Coreper on Wednesday, will discuss the drafts. Key numbers for the Youth Experience Scheme still need political-level agreement in the coming days. A discount on full foreign student fees for EU students will likely slip to next year, alongside a plan to reconnect electricity markets.

The drafts also reference UK involvement in EU defence cooperation schemes, access to law enforcement databases and reassurances over the EU's "Made in Europe" plans, the BBC understands.

Who backs it, who doesn't?

Supermarkets and farm representatives support the food trade plans. Some pro-Brexit campaigners attack the reapplication of EU rules. Boris Johnson's post-Brexit trade deal prioritised UK regulatory freedom over avoiding new red tape, checks and delays — the trade-off this agreement reverses.

The British Chambers of Commerce released new analysis of members' views on Monday. The lobby group says the current relationship is "failing to deliver", leaving firms "struggling with a thicket of Brexit red tape" nearly six years after the UK's exit.

In a BCC survey, 56% of exporting businesses wanted EU customs paperwork and delays removed so they can grow. Among manufacturers, that rose to 58%.

The BCC wants government to explore nine options for a closer relationship, including a customs union, a "Swiss-style" Single Market relationship and a "Canada model" associate membership. It also cited economic analysis showing the largest long-term gains would come from rejoining the single market or the EU itself.

"The evidence from businesses suggests that the prime minister is right to have initiated a conversation on our future relationship with Europe, and he deserves real credit for having done so," said Shevaun Havilland, the BCC's director general. "Government needs to examine all of the options, remain clear-headed about the trade-offs each involves, and involve business in the decision-making process from the start."

The prime minister has said he wants this month's summit to launch a conversation on a longer-term path for the UK-EU relationship, including "going all the way" — meaning rejoining the bloc.