AIC Position on EU-UK Sanitary/Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement
The Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC) welcomes today’s (19/05/2025) announcement of a Sanitary/Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement to be established between the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU).
It has been a priority of the AIC and its Members to lobby for an EU-UK SPS agreement, to address the considerable barriers to trade that have developed since 2020.
Since July 2024, the Government has made clear its intention to negotiate an SPS deal with the EU. During this time, the AIC has been in regular conversations with Ministers and their civil servants across Government Departments. This has included providing real-world evidence from Members, facilitating visits to businesses, working with our European Associations, and outlining what technical requirements are needed to remove the barriers to trade.
Divergence and duplication of SPS approaches have caused frequent, frustrating and unpredictable barriers at borders in both directions, impacting the trade of vital agricultural goods. This has often led to increased complexity, delays, and costs for AIC businesses exporting and importing goods between Great Britain, the EU, and Northern Ireland.
The AIC notes that wider policy issues such as environmental targets and agricultural policy matters are not included within the scope of the agreement, and we welcome this. Whilst we need to reduce friction in traded goods in both directions, the UK and devolved nations should continue to be able to set their own agricultural and environmental policies. AIC believes it is important that England’s Precision Breeding Act continues to operate independently, as the EU develops its own ‘New Genomic Techniques’ proposals.
We note the impacts that could arise from ‘dynamic alignment’ in our SPS regime, including pesticides. It is therefore vital that the full detail is worked through with the Government to ensure we understand what this means for business and the wider food system.
The work undertaken by the Government in the past ten months should not be understated. AIC commends the efforts to establish good relations with the European Union and to take on board the detailed volume of evidence provided by AIC, our members, and other trade associations from across the food and horticultural industries.
We now look forward to working with the Government to ensure today’s announcement works for businesses in the agri-supply chain.
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