UK hungry for autumn food talks in Brussels as prices bite

British EU affairs minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said that moving closer to Brussels is the way to keep supermarket prices in check.

With soaring food prices and Brexiters pressing on UK-EU relations, the Labour government is once again selling the food safety deal it committed to strike with the EU.

“We will get that done by 2027, so businesses and consumers see the tangible impacts as soon as possible – money saved at the borders, profits freed up to invest, pounds kept in the pocket of working people,” he said during an event hosted by the Spectator magazine in London.

His speech on Wednesday came a day after a government report showed that post-Brexit export licences for agri-food products bound for the EU cost UK firms up to €75 million (£65 million) last year.

Thomas-Symonds confirmed that London and Brussels would kick off detailed negotiations on a sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) deal – along with other commitments agreed at the EU-UK summit in May – this autumn.

Still, significant challenges lie ahead. London would have to align its legislation with the EU’s SPS rules, with Brexiters denouncing this as tying the UK back into Brussels’ regulatory orbit.

During the autumn talks, the UK is expected to try to exploit the foreseen possibility of retaining key national rules, such as those on gene-edited crops.

(adm, aw)