DUBLIN (Reuters) -An agreement struck between Britain and the European Union in May to reduce friction on the trade of agricultural produce could be implemented within a year with “good political will,” EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic told a conference on Thursday.
Sefcovic was responding to a question by the Ireland and Northern Ireland head of Marks & Spencer’s, who called for speedy adoption, citing persistent challenges to its Irish operations impacting the retailer’s confidence to invest there.
May’s sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) deal, part of a wider reset in UK-EU relations, will reduce paperwork and remove routine border checks on plant and animal products moving between the UK and EU, while maintaining high food standards.
The deal is yet to be implemented as details are still being negotiated.
“Based on the trust we have rebuilt over the last years, I’m convinced that we can proceed with the SPS negotiations very quickly. We are now very well advanced in getting the mandate from the member states to do that,” Sefcovic told a British Irish Chamber of Commerce conference.
“Probably the most optimistic assessment would be that we can, we can do it in less than a year, if there is a good political will.”
While a separate 2023 deal covering trade between Britain and Northern Ireland has been a “game changer” for M&S, importing food into EU-member Ireland remains very, very complex, adding substantial costs, cutting the product range and leading to higher food waste, the country head Eddie Murphy said.
M&S, which has 18 stores in Ireland as well as outlets in petrol retailer Applegreen, sends up to 200 pieces of paperwork in each truck travelling from Britain versus a single piece of paper before Britain left the EU’s single market in 2021. It also employs a team of vets to verify the paperwork.
“We could fill Croke Park with all the paper we’ve been filling in,” Murphy said, referring to the 82,000-seat Dublin stadium.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
