Rules on Fijian fishermen and Polish barges go on bonfire of EU red tape
RULES on genetically modified Japanese carnations, Polish canal boats, undersized grains of rice and Fijian seafarers are among the hundreds of laws destined for Britain’s post-brexit bonfire of Brussels red tape.
Kemi Badenoch, the Trade Secretary, has blamed the intransigent Whitehall “blob” for the Government about-turn on its promise to scrap all EU rules still on British law books after Brexit.
Instead of repealing or reviewing half the 4,800 laws in Rishi Sunak’s first 100 days as Prime Minister, as promised, Ms Badenoch said on Wednesday she could only scrap about 600 unnecessary rules.
Details of those laws emerged yesterday after the Government amended its Retained EU Law Bill in the Lords, with many relating to outdated and irrelevant EU decisions or to policies and projects reserved for bloc members only.
An analysis of the Bill by The Daily Telegraph revealed that about 590 regulations face the chop after officials judged they could be removed without any damaging consequences.
No fewer than six of the laws relate to import and export rules around carnations. Two rules referred to Japanese carnations, which had been genetically modified for flower colour, and date back to November 2016. About 176 of the laws concentrate on fishing, which is hardly a surprise as the UK left the EU’S Common Fisheries Policy after Brexit.
Nine rules specifically concern tuna, including the 2014 repeal on a ban on imports to the EU of Atlantic bigeye tuna from Bolivia, Cambodia and Equatorial Guinea.
The EU’S granting of fishing opportunities to Venezuela off the coast of French Guiana in December 2011, will also be consigned to the dustbin of British legal history.
EU recognition of seafaring qualifications from Ghana, Bangladesh and Fiji are also on the way out, as well as a string of old fishing agreements with countries including Mauritania, Guinea Bissau and Norway. No other non-eu country is mentioned as often in the doomed regulations as Mauritania, which is cited no fewer than seven times in the amended Bill.
EU deals with the Republic of Congo on forest law enforcement and outdated trade treaties with Canada, Cuba and Turkmenistan are among the forest of documents slated for annihilation.
Temporary exemptions from road haulier driving limits, now expired, and EU organic food production rules during Covid will also be wiped from the statute books.
Rules setting the legal framework for the EU’S Copernicus satellite system, which British companies played a key role in building, will also go because the UK is no longer involved in the project. Regulations regarding import duties on undersized “broken rice” are also no longer relevant for Brexit Britain.
The EU’S 1995 tariff classifications of pig carcasses has not been spared, and neither have climate rules for Swiss aeroplanes landing in the EU or plans for an EU network of employment agencies.
February 2012’s “recognition of the Polish register of shipping as a classification society for inland waterway vessels”, better known as canal boats, is also to be scr4apped.
So too are exemptions to EU tax law allowing reduced rates of fuel duty on vehicles in the Inner and Outer Hebrides to the west of mainland Scotland.
There are 31 mentions of climate change, greenhouse gases and emissions in the amended Bill slated to be excised. Some of those relate to EU green legislation, which was later replaced or updated over the years, rather than representing a slash and burn of existing UK climate laws.
Biocidal products are mentioned 23 times in the document. However, these laws date back to before Brexit, when companies would use UK regulators to give market authorisation for their products for the whole of the EU. It is not a sign of a post-brexit free-for-all on pesticides.