By UFU parliamentary officer Alexander Kinnear
Labour have committed to a ‘veterinary agreement to prevent unnecessary border checks’ and it has been clear this past couple of months, that the government machine is picking up the pace on the matter ahead of the reset with the EU and a major summit on 19 May.
Our position
During the general election the Ulster Farmers’ Union asked that the next UK government urgently seeks a sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS)/ veterinary agreement between the entire UK and EU, based on the principles of equivalence and alignment. An ask very similar to the idea put forward by Labour.
After Parliament rejected Theresa May’s deal, the UFU adopted this position with the ambition of ensuring NI was treated on the same basis as the rest of the UK. The NI Protocol, and in particular the Windsor Framework, addressed some of the challenges created by Brexit and basically eliminated all problems North-South, but as has been well documented, issues East-West continue to cause trouble for farmers, other businesses and consumers.
The issues
Regarding many regulatory matters, NI has ended up in ‘no man’s land’. To simplify our problems NI must comply with EU regulation, but is under the control of UK based regulatory bodies. Local farmers must comply with EU regulations unlike those in GB.
This means that if the EU decide to change or amend legislation, NI must adhere to that change whatever it may be. The obvious huge benefit is to be able to trade into the single market, but the disadvantage is being out of step with GB farmers even though NI produce could end up on a shop shelf in GB. On top of this, GB companies have concluded that the NI market is too small to supply goods to different standards and in many cases, have stopped supplying goods altogether.
Putting GB on the same regulatory basis as the EU would resolve these issues, but as NI currently experiences a democratic deficit, this would then apply UK wide. This is something GB based businesses are not ready to accept as it was a hard fought ‘Brexit freedom’. However, the current Brexit deal seems only to have delivered the freedom to create more bureaucracy and trade disruption between GB-NI. A point worth noting is that whilst GB on paper have had the ability to regulatory diverge in practice, this has not happened.
Veterinary medicines
Government has always been very clear that veterinary medicines and associated issues around importation from GB do not fall within the scope of an SPS/veterinary deal. Steady and very much welcomed progress is being made on the issue ahead of the current grace period ending later this year, with the products being impacted by NI having to follow EU veterinary medicines regulation dropping significantly. However, as long as the UK (GB) and the EU are not aligned on the issue, problems will persist. That is why along with NOAH (the association representing the UK animal health industry), we are asking that the UK and EU fully align on veterinary medicine regulations as part of any wider UK-EU reset.
Reality
Although a manifesto commitment, Labour seems to have difficulty with the meaning of the commitment. With the Trump administration now in place with a desire to apply tariffs on the EU and the rise of Reform UK across GB, could the veterinary deal we all imagine also fall foul of Labour’s policy making on the hop? What concessions will the EU look for and will the lessons of Brexit on both sides of the debate be learned? Or will an attitude prevail that too much has been invested in the Windsor Framework for NI and some other deal be struck between GB and the EU?
However much we might have thought we had in common with Labour during the general election, when elected, all commonality evaporated with the decision to implement the inheritance ‘death tax’. All arguments put forward by UFU have been dismissed with no regard for our farmers who are elderly, terminally ill or through the devastation of a farm accident, don’t have the luxury of succession planning.
Unfortunately, the reality is Labour have the control, power and authority to do what they want when they want to. This means that our lobbying efforts are in the context that Labour will decide what suits Labour best on all issues including any future SPS/veterinary arrangements.
For NI however, it’s a now or never moment to finally begin to address unresolved Brexit issues once and for all.
