The Minister for the Constitution met with members of the Windsor Framework Committee at Stormont, Belfast to discuss a new agri-food agreement with the EU.
They were joined by Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir, and discussed the Windsor Framework, hoping to negotiate a new agri-food agreement with the European Union.
Minister for the Constitution and European Union Relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds, said that the new SPS Agreement would need to be negotiated, with negotiations expected to begin in early 2025.
Thomas-Symonds spoke to journalists: “I know it is really important with the European Union that we have good faith in implementing the Windsor Framework going forward in the medium term in terms of an SPS (Sanitary and Phytosanitary) Agreement, because I’m sure you’ll all appreciate it’s not going to just appear, it’s going to need to be negotiated.”
He said he wanted a deal that would “contribute to a free flow of trade across the Irish Sea”, and said he hoped that “an ambitious SPS Agreement is going to ease the situation in terms of GB-NI trade”.
A spokesperson for The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) said: “We’re interested to hear discussion of a possible SPS Agreement with the EU, which has the potential to ease trade in food and drink with our nearest trading partner. However, negotiating this wouldn’t be easy and would require compromises as well as gains, which would need to be carefully worked through alongside industry.”
Director general of the Provision Trade Federation (PTF), Rod Addy, said: “The PTF is encouraged by the Government’s aim to clinch an SPS Agreement with the EU. The food industry still struggles with the barriers to trade inherent in the Brexit deal the last Government negotiated. The PTF has long argued that anything that reduces red tape, costs and time involved in exporting and essential importing must be a good thing for food security and for UK dairy, pork and fish processors.
“Chief among the issues to resolve swiftly should be the status of GB-wide ‘Not for EU’ labelling, which threatens to add considerable unnecessary cost and complexity to exports and imports and halt the decline of food inflation. The rapidly soaring cost of importing products, the threat of illegal meat imports and the continuous ban on shipping meat and dairy products back to the continent after slicing, dicing or packaging it in the UK are also major priorities.”
A spokesperson for the British Poultry Council (BPC) said: “This is good news: a UK-EU SPS Agreement is what is best for British trade right now. Prioritising an agreement that recognises equivalence of standards makes relations with the EU – our biggest and most crucial trading partner – as efficient and as fair as possible.”
