Why bring back trade barriers we’ve spent years trying to remove?

The Conservatives have pledged to tear up any UK-EU food and agriculture agreement negotiated by the current Government if it requires Britain to align with EU rules. For the British meat industry, that threatens to undo years of efforts to remove the costly trade barriers created by Brexit.

According to a Financial Times report published on 6 October, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith have both indicated they would scrap an agreement involving dynamic alignment with EU food and agricultural regulations.

Their objection is that Britain would become a ‘rule-taker’ from Brussels. But for UK meat exporters, that argument misses a fundamental commercial reality.

Businesses exporting meat to the EU must already comply fully with EU rules and standards, regardless of whether Britain has an SPS agreement. Exporters are therefore already effectively rule-takers. What Brexit added was an expensive extra layer of bureaucracy, certification and border checks simply to prove that compliance. These additional costs bring no commercial benefit and make British meat businesses less competitive.

BMPA CEO John Powell warns that abandoning an SPS agreement would be a serious backwards step. He said: “Conservative reticence to keep any SPS deal that the current Government strikes with the EU makes absolutely no commercial or economic sense. It would re-impose the harms inflicted on the British meat industry that Brexit did 10 years ago.”

The EU remains the industry’s largest and most important export market, with UK red meat exports, including offal, exceeding £2 billion in 2025 according to HMRC. A comprehensive SPS agreement would remove much of the unnecessary administration associated with that trade, including Export Health Certificates and routine animal and public health border checks on legally traded products entering the EU. It would also provide greater certainty for businesses planning long-term investment.

The FT reports growing concern across the food and drink sector about the prospect of regulations changing repeatedly as different governments take office. Such uncertainty makes it harder for businesses to plan, invest and develop new markets.

For meat processors, the potential benefits of a lasting agreement extend well beyond cutting paperwork. Reduced costs and friction would free up funds for new technology and innovation, improve productivity, help reopen lost markets and support jobs and growth.

The question to the Conserviatives is: why would we voluntarily bring back costly barriers that achieve nothing for our exporters?

The priority should be to secure a comprehensive, lasting SPS agreement that allows British meat businesses to compete, invest and grow, not leave them facing the prospect of another costly reversal.