UK and EU negotiators have agreed a 200-page draft agreement that would remove most post-Brexit border checks on food and farm trade, the BBC reported on 3 November1. The text has gone to EU member states for a meeting of national ambassadors, known as Coreper, on Wednesday 4 November1.
Separate texts on linking the two emissions trading systems and on a youth travel and work scheme went out at the same time1. A 15-page draft joint statement for the UK-EU summit was circulated with them1. The European Commission said in October that the summit would be held on 20 November2. The BBC described the food element as the most significant part of the "Brexit reset" agreed so far1.
What comes off the bill at the border
The BBC reported that the certificates would no longer be needed: £200 for an Export Health Certificate and £25 for a phytosanitary one1. Inspector fees, organic certificates, some port fees, sampling fees and other checks on EU-UK food and agricultural trade would also go1.
UK exports to the EU of fresh sausages, burgers, shellfish from domestic waters and seed potatoes would also be able to resume1. The agreement would allow passports for UK pets taken into the EU1.
Customs and Northern Ireland stay out
Sanitary and phytosanitary rules cover food safety and animal and plant health at the border. Customs is a separate matter. Under the existing EU-UK trade agreement, goods trade carries no tariffs or quotas, but customs formalities are required and traders self-certify rules of origin3.
The full text has not been reported, and the BBC account does not set out which consignments fall outside the deal1. Goods trade with Northern Ireland is governed by the withdrawal agreement rather than the trade agreement3. The BBC report makes no mention of changes to Great Britain to Northern Ireland arrangements1.
The price is dynamic alignment
Under the deal, the UK would commit to observing and adapting to existing EU rules on plant, animal and food trade standards, a process called dynamic alignment1.
England has diverged from the EU rule book in some areas, for example on precision breeding of plants, formerly known as gene editing1. The BBC reported that transition arrangements have been agreed in recent weeks while the EU's new regulations come into force1.
The government's European Partnerships Bill will provide the legal mechanism for applying new EU rules, and for the alignments needed to link the UK emissions trading scheme with the EU's1. That link would save UK exporters from paying the EU's new carbon border tax1. The Guardian reported on 23 October that both sides were close to agreeing a National Farmers' Union demand4. Crops grown using fungicides not yet approved in the EU could be sold in the bloc under a transition arrangement in the SPS deal4.
No date yet for the paperwork to stop
Wednesday's Coreper meeting is a discussion, not the finish line. Some key numbers for the youth scheme will be settled at a political level in the coming days1. Plans to let EU students pay less than full foreign fees will probably wait until next year, the BBC said1.
The BBC report gives no date for when the certificates would stop being required1. The summit on 20 November is the next public milestone2, 4. The Guardian reported on 23 October that negotiations on the food and drink deal and the emissions trading link were almost complete4. It said the youth mobility scheme remained deadlocked, and member states had not agreed whether to keep the three issues together4.