UK-EU deal will ‘dissolve’ £60m a year of costs for plant trade, says Angela Eagle

Résumé détaillé

Signing of agreement to smooth movement of food, plants and animals next week will not recoup huge sums firms were forced to spendThe removal of border checks and paperwork on…

Signing of agreement to smooth movement of food, plants and animals next week will not recoup huge sums firms were forced to spend

The removal of border checks and paperwork on plant imports will “dissolve” £60m of annual costs for the horticulture industry when the UK and EU’s new post-Brexit deal comes in, the environment secretary has said.

Before the UK-EU summit on 20 November, Angela Eagle said she hoped paperwork headaches for importers would “disappear” after the changes, although the move would not help businesses recoup the large sums they spent to deal with border controls.

“If we get the ink dry on 20 November, which I very much hope we will … all of that uncertainty, the extra cost, the paperwork and the potential problems if things get stuck at borders would all disappear,” Eagle told the Guardian during a visit to a plant nursery in Kent.

“The cost, that £60m, can just dissolve and people’s potential to both export back into the EU and get their imports in … gets easier and more predictable.”

The UK’s departure from the bloc triggered the introduction of border checks on imports and exports of plants, food and animal products, from sausages and cheese to trees and leather goods.

Exports of British food and drink to the EU have collapsed by more than a third since Brexit, according to analysis by the National Farmers’ Union, with egg, chicken and potato producers badly affected.

The sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) deal, largely agreed between the two sides in May, is due to be signed at next week’s summit. It will permit the removal of the vast majority of physical checks and most of the accompanying certificates and paperwork.

This will save businesses in the horticulture sector the current cost of trading with Europe, including plant health inspection fees, phytosanitary certificates, document and ID checks, port fees, agents’ fees, additional labour costs and extra haulage costs.

Début de l'article, extrait de The Guardian Business. Pour lire la suite, ouvrez l'article chez le média.