Select committee: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 12
Eighth Report - Seafood and meat exports to the EU
Published 29 Apr 2021
Paragraph 56
Addressed to Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Seafood and Meat Exports to the EU All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Great Britain should have introduced SPS checks on all EU imports from 1 January 2021 to match the position taken by the EU. The continued absence of SPS checks and controls on EU imports undermines the competitiveness of British seafood and meat businesses in their home market, creates incentives to relocate factories and jobs to the EU, and increases risks around food safety and biosecurity. It also reduces the incentive for the European Commission to negotiate on SPS checks and controls while EU businesses mostly face no such checks when exporting to Great Britain. It is crucial that the Government’s latest timetable for the introduction of SPS checks for EU imports is adhered to. The Government should ensure that a digitised Seafood and meat exports to the EU 33 process for certifying EHCs for EU imports is ready no later than 1 January 2022, so that reciprocity can be offered to the European Commission to speed up movements in both directions. The Government should inform the Committee every month of progress towards introducing the SPS import checks and controls.
From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Eighth Report - Seafood and meat exports to the EU (HC 1189), paragraph 56, 29 April 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 12 July 2021 (deadline 29 June 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government states that it is "fully committed to supporting meat and seafood exports", but declines or has "no plans" on several recommendations, including a public certification service and extending the Movement Assistance Scheme to EU exports.
- On the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, it says the SPS chapter puts in place a framework to reduce SPS controls, and that frictionless trade "would require regulatory alignment with the EU", which it says would undermine regulatory autonomy.
- On certification, it says it has "no plans" to change the commercial Official Veterinarian market. Rather than publishing a comparative report, it is engaging with other countries. It has no current plans to ask the RCVS to admit vets to the temporary register for export health certification roles, but will "monitor the situation".
- On support schemes, it does "not consider support schemes for meat exporters are needed" on current market conditions, but says this "will be kept under regular review". It has "no plans to extend the MAS scheme" to exports to the EU or non-EU countries.
- It sets out phased import controls from October 2021, with physical checks at Border Control Posts from January 2022 and further checks from March 2022. Defra "will continue to report to the Committee" on progress.