EU agri-food deal to improve GB-NI goods flow

Nick Thomas-Symonds, who is minister for EU relations in the Cabinet Office, said a negotiated sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement between the UK and EU would be mutually beneficial to both sides.

The minister, who will lead the UK side in talks about new links with the EU, was in Northern Ireland on Tuesday to hear from various stakeholders about the post-Brexit trade barriers that have created the need for checks on goods entering the region from across the Irish Sea.

Labour has pledged to “reset” relations with Brussels, with the striking of a deal on food safety and animal and plant health among the new government’s priorities.

Post-Brexit trade arrangements require checks on certain goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK (Liam McBurney/PA)

Mr Thomas-Symonds told reporters in Belfast that negotiations would not be able to start until early next year – as the new-look European Commission is not yet in place following recent EU-wide elections – but he said the Government wanted to undertake the groundwork before then.

The Cabinet Office minister said Northern Ireland would be at the “forefront” of his mind when it came to the discussions with Brussels.

“I wouldn’t expect hard-edge formal negotiations to begin until the early part of next year, but do I hope that an SPS agreement, an ambitious SPS agreement, is going to ease the situation in terms of GB-NI trade, absolutely,” he said.

The devolved institutions at Stormont were resurrected earlier this year having been in cold storage for two years because of the DUP exercising a veto power to collapse the governance structures in protest at the economic and legal barriers created between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK as the result of Brexit.

The Northern Ireland Protocol that Boris Johnson struck with the EU, and its successor, the Windsor Framework, which Rishi Sunak negotiated with Brussels, both involve a requirement for checks and additional red tape on the movement of goods from Great Britain into the region.

Under those accords, Northern Ireland effectively aligns with many EU rules and regulations in order to maintain an open border on the island of Ireland.

So any deal to smooth agri-food trade between the UK and EU would reduce the requirement for those type of internal barriers and checks between NI and Great Britain.

Mr Thomas-Symonds, who met Stormont Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir at Belfast Port on Tuesday, said Labour intended to operate the Windsor Framework in “good faith” prior to any new SPS deal emerging.

“It’s really important that we have a good faith approach to the implementation of the Windsor Framework, we voted for the Windsor Framework as an opposition party,” he said.

“And I know it is really important with the European Union that we have good faith in implementing the Windsor Framework going forward.”

He added: “It is of mutual benefit what we want to do – it’s in the UK’s national interest, in the UK’s security, the UK’s safety and the UK’s prosperity to have a closer relationship. It’s in the EU’s interests as well.

“But it’s also I think for the EU to be dealing with a good faith partner that respects the rule of law, respects international law, and also respects and will remain a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, I think that is a framework for co-operation that is in the mutual interest of both sides.”

On his visit to Belfast, the minister also met business and civic society groups at Queen’s University.

Then at Stormont he met Assembly speaker Edwin Poots and also the chairman and deputy chairman of the committee set up to scrutinise the operation of the Windsor Framework – Sinn Fein MLA Philip McGuigan and DUP MLA David Brooks.

On the potential shape of an agri-food deal, Mr Thomas-Symonds added: “We are very ambitious in terms of the agreement.

“I mean, obviously, as you can imagine, it’s always subject to negotiations, there’s two sides to this negotiation. But, certainly, we are very ambitious in terms of its scope going forward.”

The minister said he wanted a deal that would “contribute to a free flow of trade across the Irish Sea”.

Mr Thomas-Symonds said a commitment to high legal and regulatory standards would frame the UK’s approach to negotiations.

“We believe in high standards in the employment law space, but we also believe in high standards in farming, in terms of environmental standards,” he said.

“We are not a government that is going to be engaging in a race to the bottom, indeed we will be engaging in a race to the top in terms of standards.

“So we actually think that being a country that aspires to those high standards that an agreement and ambitious agreement is in the interest of both sides.

“And, of course, we believe it will provide obviously a situation for freer flow of trade across the Irish Sea.”