A settled 'zero text'

The EU and UK have completed their deal to remove Brexit checks on imports and exports of food and animal products, with goods covered ranging from sausages and cheese to leather goods and flowers. Sources describe the deal as a completed SPS agreement.

According to sources, the text on post-Brexit food exports has been settled and there will be no further negotiation. The document is due to be presented to EU ambassadors at a meeting on Wednesday that will discuss the first iteration of a joint statement to be issued on 20 November.

• •The settled text goes to EU ambassadors on Wednesday
• •A joint statement follows on 20 November

Relief for exporters and small retailers

Food exporters stand to gain most. The National Farmers' Union said last month that exports of British food to the EU had collapsed by a third since Brexit, with eggs, chicken and potato products worst hit.

Smaller UK retailers such as delicatessens can return to buying smaller batches of cheese and wines, something check costs had made impossible since 2022.

The burden of the old paperwork was set out to the parliamentary trade select committee, where a transport leader described it as "pure hell", recounting one truck held up for as long as 27 days in Calais because it did not have the right certificates for a frozen beef cargo.

Implementation pushed to 2028

The SPS deal was largely agreed in May and published by the government to allow food producers time to prepare. At that point the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs said it expected implementation in May next year, but it has since briefed industry leaders that the deal may not take effect until 2028.

The delay stems from the UK's need to "dynamically align" British food standards legislation with the EU's, in areas such as fungicides used in British wet weather. Defra has also told industry leaders of a further six-month transition period for a handful of key products, such as grains grown this year with fungicides not yet approved.

The legislation is expected to renew controversy over whether the UK is a "rule taker" rather than a "rule maker", a key issue in Brexit.

Northern Ireland labelling and the youth scheme

Under the proposed framework, Northern Ireland retailers will no longer have to label products as "not for the EU", a process criticised in the past by big supermarket chains such as Marks & Spencer.

The zero text also includes chapters on a widely expected youth experience scheme, but this is still being negotiated. The UK has made an 11th-hour proposal over tuition fees for young Europeans to break a deadlock in talks. Two weeks ago the European Commission was concerned enough about the UK's insistence that EU students pay full international fees that ambassadors discussed "decoupling" the issue and agreeing instead to negotiate on it separately for another six months.

The settled text now goes to EU ambassadors on Wednesday before the EU-UK summit on 20 November, a meeting delayed six months by a change in UK prime minister, with implementation not expected until the first quarter of 2028.