The UK government has announced that it is “scrapping” border checks on fruit and vegetables imported from Europe, following prime minister Sir Keir Starmer’s commitment to establish a new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement with the EU.
In a statement published on Monday (2 June), the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) wrote that checks on medium-risk fruit and vegetables “will not be required – and will therefore not be brought into force this summer”.
A temporary easement on checks lasting until 1 July has now been extended to 31 January 2027 as a “contingency measure”. However, Defra expects the new SPS agreement will void this.
The new deal should also support the future removal of border checks on other food products, the government expects.
‘Cutting excessive red tape’
Defra said that, “in the short term”, medium-risk fruit and vegetables – which includes tomatoes, grapes, plums, cherries, peaches and peppers – can be imported without being subject to “import checks or being charged associated fees”.
In the long term, the agreement will create a new “UK-EU SPS zone”, which Defra says will “eliminat[e] routine SPS border checks for food exports and imports”.
The government added that by “cutting excessive red tape” it aims to “strengthen supply chains and reduce prices for businesses and consumers”.
Biosecurity minister, Baroness Hayman of Ullock, said that government’s deal with the EU will “make food cheaper, slash bureaucracy and remove cumbersome border controls for businesses”.
Chartered Institute response
The Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade's SPS expert Joseph Goldsworthy said that following the SPS announcement at the recent EU-UK summit, "the scrapped checks will come with little surprise but will still be welcomed by many traders on both sides of the border".
"Any further enforcement of additional checks at the border following the SPS agreement announcement would have been nonsensical, so businesses can breathe a sigh of relief that common sense has prevailed, and the upcoming checks have now been scrapped."
He added that there's now a "weight of expectation" that "further easements of paperwork requirements for the food and drink sector swiftly follow".
"Companies will be eager to see the back of burdensome administration for SPS goods, with many people keen to understand a timeframe for the SPS agreement, and what the new framework will look like, so that traders can adequately prepare."
Timeline
The government has not provided timeframe for negotiating the new SPS agreement.
Defra’s Animal Plant Health Agency (APHA) wrote in its latest newsletter that, while the UK had “agreed to move swiftly towards detailed negotiations”, the government won’t be “putting an arbitrary deadline on negotiations as it’s important that we get the right agreement”.
Both Defra and APHA have reiterated that traders must continue to comply with the UK’s Border Target Operating Model (BTOM), which introduced a series of documentary and physical checks on animal and plant products last year.
