Organisations including the Pet Food Manufacturers’ Association and British Veterinary Association have joined forces to propose an urgent new veterinary agreement and streamlined processes to resolve crippling restrictions to exports to the European Union.

Other organisations in the SPS Certification Working Group include food and feed trade associations, hauliers, farmers and veterinary and environmental health professional organisations.

A new report, Minimising SPS Friction in EU Trade, calls on the Government to engage with the EU to build a system that works for exporters. It asks the Government to invest in sufficient resources and systems to support the sustainability of British businesses, specifically by:

• Improving current systems to remove archaic bureaucracy, reducing time, error and costs
• Reviewing requirements for inspection and certification;
• Negotiating a form of mutual veterinary agreement with the EU which would ease problems trading food and feed between GB and the EU and GB to NI, and from EU to GB when full sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) import controls take effect in 2022.

Roger Gale MP, who sits on the cross-party UK Trade and Business Commission, said: “This important report highlights the systemic challenges facing food exporters and the need for urgent solutions. This will all help inform the cross-party recommendations we are developing on how current barriers to trade with the EU can be addressed.”