Key facts
- Falconer said the UK would have a voice in the room but no vote on EU food policies under the reset.
- Falconer said the food reset would be worth an additional £5bn and the whole deal would add 0.4% to UK GDP.
- Falconer said the reset would not involve upfront payments but could include an exit clause.
- National Farmers' Union president Tom Bradshaw said food export volumes to the EU had fallen by over a third since 2019.
- Falconer said checks on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and Not for EU labelling could be torn up.
EU relations minister Hamish Falconer told the BBC on November 15 that the UK would have a "voice in the room" but no vote on European Union food policies as part of a so-called Brexit reset meant to cut red tape. Prime Minister Andy Burnham hopes to agree a deal at a summit on Friday, according to the BBC report.
Falconer said the UK would be involved in a process to shape the rules and that the deal could help bring down prices for shoppers. The reset would not involve any upfront payments, he said, but he made clear there could be an exit clause if a future UK government reversed the closer alignment. He said it was "reasonable" to consider what would happen if a future Conservative or Reform government wanted to undo the arrangements, adding: "The EU is worried about that and you can see why." The BBC said its understanding was that the clause stemmed from EU concerns about the cost of rebuilding border food safety facilities put in place after Brexit, which the reset would dismantle.
Speaking at a Marks & Spencer food court in central London, Falconer said the deal would help cut costs for firms importing food. "This will mean less cost for supermarkets, and I hope that less cost then turns into cheaper produce on the shelves," he said. He said pages of form-filling had led some suppliers to give up exporting to the EU, and cited Lincolnshire sausages as a product almost impossible to export. The BBC reported that some M&S trucks require more than 300 pages of documents for food exports, from export health certificates and phytosanitary certificates to veterinary visits and border check paperwork.
Falconer said the reset could also mean tearing up checks on goods flowing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and separate "Not for EU" labelling. He said the impact of the reset for food would be an additional £5bn, and that the whole deal to be signed on Friday was calculated to add 0.4% to UK GDP. The wider agreement also covers aligning emissions trading rules and a youth mobility scheme.
Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers' Union, welcomed reduced border inspections and paperwork but said it was "a moment of opportunity and risk" for the NFU, with farmers waiting to see carve-outs and transitional arrangements. He said food export volumes to the EU had fallen by over a third since 2019. He raised pesticides and precision breeding, or gene edited crops, as areas where he hoped for compromise.
Falconer said people would have to "wait and see the detail" on gene editing, and that there were bound to be compromises in any deal but the government wanted to ensure UK advantages "aren't lost under the deal." On crisp flavourings, he said: "I want to take this opportunity to absolutely stamp down on misinformation about smoky bacon crisps," saying two leading snack brands had already adapted recipes to EU rules and that almost every UK food or drink exporter aligns with EU rules because it is the biggest market.