Brexit And Food And Drink ' Clarity In Short Supply As Clock Ticks Down'

• Published date: 10 November 2020
• Subject Matter: International Law, Food, Drugs, Healthcare, Life Sciences, International Trade & Investment, Food and Drugs Law
• Law Firm: Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP
• Author: Mr George Frier

As the evenings grow darker, so do the clouds concerning the impact of a possible no-deal Brexit on the food and drink sector.

While the political jousting continues, industry leaders continue to lobby for clarity, certainty and early decisions to enable them to undertake detailed contingency planning for 1 January 2021, both for any trade deal that may be agreed between the UK and EU and for the possibility of no deal. No deal of course means that Britain would move onto World Trade Organisation non-preferential terms, with potentially significant increases in tariffs applied to good exported from and into the UK. If there is a deal, the hope is that in all respects it would be tariff-free.

There are many areas of concern, including:

• Logistics preparation for vehicle movements, transit procedures and associated paperwork. The road haulage industry predicts significant disruption at border control points, which will be of particular concern with regard to fresh produce and livestock/products of animal origin, all of which require pre-clearance. There are serious questions over whether the limited number of (largely French) EU border control points will have the capacity to handle the anticipated volumes of traffic
• Loss of third country equivalence for plant varieties, seed potatoes and others if there is no deal Perversely, however, the reverse does not apply, so EU varieties of plants and potato products will be able to be freely imported
• Organic food will potentially also lose equivalence if the pan-EU certification scheme for organic produce is not replicated.
• Food standards and regulatory: the concerns about a possible lowering of standards and the opening of our borders to cheaper, and arguably less safe, imports from the United States has been well documented and hotly contested. The Agriculture Bill resumes on 4 November its stormy passage back to the Commons from the House of Lords. The Lords...