A new Brexit deal with Brussels has been on UK prime minister Keir Starmer’s to-do list since he took office last year. The original exit deal brokered by then UK prime minister Boris Johnson in 2020 came on the back of some ill-tempered negotiations and left the UK further out of the EU’s trading orbit than it may have wanted.
According to the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS), UK exports to the EU have fallen by approximately 15 per cent since Brexit, while imports from the EU are down 18 per cent, a decline attributed to the additional red tape that now applies.
Starmer wants closer trading ties to boost the UK’s flagging economy but without opening up the divisive Brexit arguments again, no easy task with Reform UK breathing down his neck. The latter described the deal as a “surrender” to the EU.
So what’s in it?
The deal, announced by both sides in London on Monday, includes a new agrifoods agreement, known as an SPS agreement, which greatly reduces red tape on UK food and drink exports into the bloc.
In return, the UK will accept some dynamic alignment on EU food standards and a role for the European Court of Justice in policing the deal, elements that Brexiteers have traditionally opposed.
The UK has also agreed to giving European fishing boats a further 12 years of access to British waters, a move that has not gone down well with the UK fishing industry.
British passport holders will be able to use e-gates in Europe following years of lengthy passport control queues.
Talks are continuing on a youth mobility scheme to allow people aged 18-30 in the UK and the EU to move freely between countries for a limited period to work, study and travel. The deal moves us on from Brexit rows, Starmer says.
How will it affect Northern Ireland’s Brexit position?
Under the deal, Northern Ireland retains its dual market access to the UK and EU internal markets, while many of the Windsor Framework frictions on the movement of food goods between the North and Britain have been removed.
The latter had been a stumbling block for many businesses in Northern Ireland including supermarkets, which are – in many cases – supplied from distribution centres in England and Scotland.
Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill said: “Anything that protects the all-island economy, anything that maximises our access to both markets in terms of trade, anything that removes barriers for trade, then that’s something that we would obviously very much welcome.”
Will the Republic’s trade with the UK be impacted?
Anything that reduces trade friction between Ireland and the UK will be welcomed here, particularly when the UK is Ireland’s largest export market for food and drink. “On the face of it, we favour a system that reduces red tape in EU trade with the UK,” a spokesman for the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) said. “The issue for us are the deals cut with third countries that do not adhere to the same EU standards,” he said.
