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Britain backs down in Brexit 'food blockade' row

Boris Johnson has faced bruising criticism in the House of Commons over the Internal Market Bill. - AFP
Boris Johnson has faced bruising criticism in the House of Commons over the Internal Market Bill. - AFP

Britain backed down in the “food blockade” row with Brussels on Thursday 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 (SPS) lists for non-EU countries, exports such as cheese, lamb, eggs and beef would be illegal in the EU and Northern Ireland. It will also be much harder for pets and racehorses to travel.

Brussels said it needed clarity on what the UK’s future rules would be from the end of the transition period on January 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 31 December 2020 and when these 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 effectively 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.

Internal Markets Bill vote tracker
Internal Markets Bill vote tracker

Downing Street confirmed on Thursday that 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 described as a "food blockade."

In what rebels believe to be a concession, the Government has agreed that 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. Last night peers signalled the climbdown would fail to placate Conservative rebels in the House of Lords, which could seek to hold up the Bill for weeks.

Lord Howard, the former Conservative leader and prominent Brexiteer, warned that the deal struck with MPs still failed to address his key objection that the legislation still required "Parliament to break international law."

One EU diplomat said that the moves towards compromise were “promising” but other sources suggested that Brussels could not accept any legislation undermining the Withdrawal Agreement.

“It may convince the Commons but not the EU,” said a senior European diplomatic source.

“It is still a violation of the Withdrawal Agreement but it is an interesting development,” said an EU official.

Sir Ivan Rogers, the former UK ambassador to the EU, told the Irish Times that he thought Mr Johnson now wanted no deal.

“He is quite Trumpite in method. He was always fascinated by Trump and his strategy to take the other side by surprise and destabilise it,” he added.

Clement Beaune, France’s Europe Minister, said that if the threat to renege on the treaty was a tactic, it would not work. He said the bloc should not fall into a “British trap of breaking off trade talks.

A senior EU diplomat said that the Bill had damaged the bloc’s trust in Britain but that trade negotiations would continue. “We are distressed and appalled but at the same time we should not overreact,” the diplomat said.

David Frost, the UK’s chief negotiator, met Mr Barnier in Brussels on Thursday for preparatory talks ahead of a full round of trade negotiations the week after next.

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