UK, EU draft deal to scrap post-Brexit food export checks

The United Kingdom and the European Union have agreed a draft deal to remove post-Brexit checks on food and agriculture exports, the BBC reported on Nov. 3, 2026, with the text due before EU ambassadors in Brussels on Wednesday.

The British government claims the agreement would eventually deliver £5.1 billion a year in benefits to the economy, the BBC reported. Exporters would stop paying £200 for each export health certificate and £25 for each phytosanitary certificate, along with inspector fees, organic certificates and some port fees, according to the BBC.

The 200-page draft on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) rules, which govern food safety and animal and plant health, was circulated to EU member states for a meeting of EU ambassadors known as Coreper, said the BBC’s economics editor, Faisal Islam. Draft texts on emissions trading and a youth travel and work scheme went out alongside it, plus a 15-page draft joint statement for UK and EU leaders. The BBC said it understands the SPS text is in draft form, so nothing has been signed.

Exports of fresh sausages, burgers, shellfish from domestic waters and seed potatoes to the EU would resume, and pet passports would return, the BBC reported. Business Matters also reported that paperwork and physical checks on food arriving in Northern Ireland from elsewhere in the UK would end.

The trade-off is dynamic alignment, meaning a UK commitment to observe and adapt to existing EU regulations. Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch said that would be “a red line”, Business Matters reported. Al Pinkerton, the Liberal Democrat Europe spokesperson, called the arrangement “a patch, not a fix”.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham told ITV that “public opinion has changed nationally”, according to Business Matters, and said he would not run ahead of it. Specific numbers in the youth scheme are to be “finalised at a political level in the coming days”, the BBC reported. The reports give no signing date and say only that a UK-EU summit is planned for later this month.

Reports differ on when the changes would start. Business Matters said government guidance for food businesses intends the agreement to take effect in mid-2027. Food Management Today said it would not be implemented until the first quarter of 2028, a claim that outlet attributed to journalists and that no other report has confirmed.

Exporters describe the checks as costly. Jon Walsh of the British company Bio&Me told BBC 5 Live that each pallet had to be inspected by a vet at £140, and that the draft sounded like “really good news”.

For Canadians, the talks are a reminder of how Europe is reordering its trade ties. Canada already trades with the EU under the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), and Ottawa and Brussels launched a new “Alliance for the Future” at their Montreal summit, as we reported on Oct. 29. A British Chambers of Commerce paper cited by the BBC lists nine options for the UK-EU relationship, one of them a “Canada model” of associate membership.

Burnham has also said he is open to talks on EU free movement, as we reported on Oct. 25. EU ambassadors are expected to consider the SPS text on Wednesday, Nov. 4.

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Via BBC News, with additional reporting from Business Matters and Food Management Today. Canada News Media has not seen the draft text.