Government backs down in Brussels ‘food blockade’ row

BRITAIN yesterday backed down in the “food blockade” row with Brussels and agreed to EU demands for further details on its food and animal health regime after Brexit.

The news emerged as a government policy paper set out details of the compromise Boris Johnson struck with Tory rebels over the Internal Market Bill. The compromise makes it more difficult to trigger provisions that would break the Withdrawal Agreement and international law.

Boris Johnson had accused the EU of threatening to cut off food supplies from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland during trade negotiations with the UK by withholding “third country listing”. If British animals and animal products are not added to the bloc’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary lists for non-eu countries, exports such as cheese, lamb, eggs and beef would be illegal in the EU and Northern Ireland.

Brussels said it needed clarity on what the UK’S future rules would be from the end of the transition period on Jan 1, when the country leaves the Single Market and Customs Union.

“Michel Barnier clearly stated that the EU is not refusing to list the UK as a third country for food imports,” a commission spokesman said. “We are still waiting for comprehensive information on what the UK’S future rules will be, in particular for imports, after Dec 31 and when the rules will be adopted.”

The spokesman said the UK had told Brussels it would use a modified version of EU rules on animal and public health. “We are waiting for this legislation to be put forward,” he said.

“We will be laying secondary legislation next month to clarify listing procedures in future,” a UK Government spokesman said. “We are operating the same rules and will be at the end of the transition period.” The commission said listing could take place in a matter of days once the information was given.

The UK was listed in 2019, once Theresa May’s government showed legislation proving that the EU’S SPS regime would continue if there was a no deal.

The Prime Minister used the “threat” of the blockade, which EU diplomats dismissed as “spin” and “fake news”, to justify his Internal Market Bill.

The Bill has no provisions over SPS but does on export declarations from Britain to Northern Ireland and state aid rules. Downing Street confirmed yesterday ministers would require Parliament’s approval before using powers in the Internal Market Bill which would alter the Brexit divorce deal.

The compromise paper said ministers would only seek permission to use the powers if the EU had engaged in a “material breach of its duties of good faith or other obligations”.

Examples include the EU refusing to grant third country listing to UK agricultural goods for “manifestly unreasonable or poorly justified reasons”, which would in effect result in what Mr Johnson called a “food blockade”.

In what rebels believe to be a concession, the Government has agreed it will trigger the formal dispute mechanisms set out in the Withdrawal Agreement “in parallel” with using the powers. This was a key demand of Geoffrey Cox, the former attorney general, who said that it would make the Government’s actions legal.