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BREAKING: The UK will make a unilateral declaration promising to remain fully aligned to EU food safety and animal health rules for the production of agrifood products destined for Northern Ireland after January 1, @rtenews News has learned.
2/ The EU will also issue its own declaration recognising that British food meets European safety standards during two separate grace periods, one for three months and another for six months.
3/ The declarations will form part of a final sequence of agreements allowing the NI Protocol to take effect.The overall package will be signed off by the Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove and European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic no later than next week
4/ The UK’s unilateral declaration will be designed to reassure EU member states that any meat, dairy and plant products entering NI from GB – and by extension entering the single market – will be safe for consumers and will be a safeguard against animal or plant diseases
5/ It’s understood the declaration is specifically linked to the production of meat and products of animal origin in Great Britain that are destined for Northern Ireland.
6/ The alignment will be directly tied to two derogations from EU food safety law which are designed to give Northern Ireland traders time to adapt to the new regime.
7/ One three-month derogation will mean that traders who send food products of animal origin, and plant products, such as seed potatoes, from GB to Northern Ireland are not automatically required to have export health certificates accompanying the goods.
8/ The 2nd derogation which will last for 6 mths relates to processed meats (sausages, mince, pies, chilled prepared food). Such products, normally prohibited by the EU if coming from a third country, will be permitted to enter NI but will still require export health certificates
9/ Essentially, the UK unilateral declaration agreeing to regulatory alignment will cover the two exemption periods. After the three month derogation expires, any products of animal origin entering NI will require export health certificates.
10/ The EU expects that after 6 mths, processed meats from GB will no longer be permitted in NI and that in the meantime retailers will begin sourcing locally produced goods from North and South. The UK has a different interpretation, ie that further ideas can be explored.
11/ EU officials acknowledge this is a highly sensitive issue. However, they say that other third countries barred from exporting such products to the EU could challenge an open-ended exemption for GB processed foods.
12/ The unilateral declaration will be combined with the effect of the trusted trader scheme +a new role for large UK supermarket chains, which will be obliged to use their own hi-tech stock mgt and traceability systems to act as de facto export health certificates.
13/ EU veterinary inspectors will be on the ground in NI, supervising SPS controls at ports. Under the unilateral declaration, any British abattoirs + meat processing plants involved in trading products into NI will have to fully comply with EU food safety + animal health rules.
14/ There will also be a new labelling regime which will indicate that, during the three and six month derogation periods, such products are permitted for consumption in Northern Ireland only.
15/ It’s understood the UK has invoked WTO rules governing food safety as a way to frame the unilateral declarations, which could provoke anger among eurosceptics.
16/ Under WTO provisions, if a trading partner decides to change its SPS rules it should not be done immediately, but should only happen after a consultation period with another trading partner, lasting up to nine months.
17/ In UK eyes, a unilateral declaration to remain aligned with EU rules would be akin to a WTO consultation period.
18/ The EU will also issue a unilateral declaration on the impact of EU state aid rules, which will apply in NI as a result of the Protocol.
19 This follows a dispute over the so-called “reach back” effect, in which any GB company with branches in Northern Ireland that enjoys a subsidy from the UK government, could be captured by EU state aid rules.
20/ Although Boris Johnson, the British prime minister agreed to this as part of the Withdrawal Agreement in 2019, the UK Internal Market Bill would have given British ministers to power to de-limit any EU state aid effect happning in the rest of the UK.
21/ As part of the overall settlement the EU will issue a unilateral declaration stating that it will not apply the Protocol’s state aid provisions in any “abusive” way through the reach back effect. On Monday the UK announced it would delete the offending clauses within IMB
Also, to clarify: The alignment promise will be temporary, and will last only so long as there are exemptions from certain EU food safety rules for food importers trading meat and dairy products from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
