The announcement last week that the UK won’t implement full sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) controls means Irish exporters don’t have to face the issuing of thousands of veterinary certificates from 1 April with the new date announced for 1 October. That means it will be nine months after the official Brexit transition phase ended and it will be 12 months for physical inspections to start. This is a unilateral transition announced by the UK government on imports despite rejecting the idea of an extension of the transition period during negotiations with the EU last year.

UK exporters haven’t been as fortunate because they faced full border controls from 1 January this year. The main EU ports for UK imports like Dublin, Rosslare and the French ports have been preparing for the introduction of import controls for several years and have had most of the physical infrastructure in place long before the 1 January 2021. The UK lag behind because they didn't seriously begin the process of getting ready for full border controls until 2020 and in some cases work is still at an early stage.

Different rules for British importers compared with exporters

This all means that British exporters to the EU are facing full controls while importers are not, and has led to the National Farmers Union in Britain calling for the government to put in place a level playing field for trade with the EU. The first month of trading under the new arrangements shows general UK exports to the EU down 40% with food exports down a massive 60% compared with January 2020. It is necessary to be careful in drawing conclusions based on one month’s data.

There was considerable stockpiling ahead of 1 January in anticipation of difficulties with trade or even tariffs if a deal had not been concluded on Christmas Eve. There is also the impact that COVID-19 is having on commerce and trade – this wasn’t a feature of trade figures in January 2020. It will only be when data is available for April, May and June that a more accurate comparison can be made with trade for the corresponding month in the previous year.

There is also the impact that COVID-19 is having on commerce and trade – this wasn’t a feature of trade figures in January 2020.

Agreement misfiring

While the UK referendum was in June 2016, it was only in 2020 that the EU and UK got involved in serious negotiations on a future trade agreement. For long periods it looked like there would be no agreement at all but a basic no quota no tariff agreement was concluded on Christmas Eve. Since implementation started, it has been clear that many British exporters were unprepared. We don’t know to what extent EU exporters were prepared to export to the UK because the UK weren’t prepared to introduce full border controls.

They are actively engaged in that process currently and Irish and EU exporters to the UK are now advised to be ready for 1 October.

Antiquated systems

There have been many complaints about the antiquated paper-based systems for veterinary health certification. There is validity in this but it had been considered adequate to service global trade of bulk commodities. Given its geographical location and almost three decades of a single market, huge business had developed between the EU and UK not just for trade in bulk commodities but in small and microbusinesses. This was as likely to be a butcher exporting a 2kg parcel of speciality beef as a 20,000kg bulk container from a large factory but both need the same certification when the goods are of animal or plant origin.

There have been many complaints about the antiquated paper-based systems for veterinary health certification.

Traders have only fully appreciated the complexities of the UK being no longer part of the single market when they have commenced business under the new rules. The UK government have created a nine and 12-month implementation window for exports. Had this been negotiated with the EU during the trade discussions it could have worked both ways and for an even longer period to enable full transition take place.

Speed shouldn’t have been priority

It also reflects the hastiness of the negotiation in the concluding weeks of 2020. Given the disagreements that have arisen since it appears to confirm that the agreement was put in place to meet a deadline rather than be negotiated to a conclusion. In the case of CETA between the EU and Canada, the negotiation took seven years, in the case of the EU and UK it was more like seven months with the real negotiations taking place in the last seven weeks or maybe even the last seven days!

As a result we have a very limited imperfect agreement in place. However as the UK is still aligned with the EU on all sanitary and phytosanitary issues and the UK Trade and Agriculture Commission declaring that there should be “no race to the bottom, no backsliding or turning back the clock on standards,” it should be possible to tackle the non-tariff trade barriers. There is in the agreement provision for the EU and UK to hold regular reviews of their SPS border controls. This needs to be the starting point to establish as close alignment as possible and remove a barrier to trade. If implementation of controls could be suspended while an urgent review took place, so much the better.