How Brexit May Complicate U.S. Food Exports

Or under the Swiss model, the U.K. would enter into various bilateral agreements with the EU but would also be bound by EU rules, including those that are unpopular with Brexit supporters, particularly the free movements of people. The U.K. could also establish a comprehensive free-trade agreement with the EU, but this is likely to be time-consuming; it took South Korea and Canada four and five years, respectively, to conclude their free-trade agreements.

“It may be that what is eventually agreed is a bespoke arrangement between the U.K. and EU, which borrows from several of the models mentioned above, possibly involving some form of ‘associate’ membership status for the U.K.,” explained Friedman and Maughman in a Morrison & Foerster briefing document.

Regardless of the final agreement or agreements that the U.K. establishes with the EU or with separate countries, food safety laws and regulations will likely mirror those agreements, says Wim Vandenberghe, a competition and regulatory attorney with the Sheppard Mullin law firm in Brussels. “The U.K. would not seek an overhaul of existing food laws as this may lead to significant expense for the U.K. food industry and ultimately an uncompetitive domestic market,” he explains.

Also meeting in Slovakia in late September, the Advisory Forum of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) issued a “Declaration of Commitment.” In it, EU member states agreed to “a range of measures and activities that will ensure that EFSA and Advisory Forum members can together meet future challenges in the area of food safety and so protect European consumers,” the agency stated.

Once the U.K. leaves the EU, it will no longer automatically be an EFSA member. The extent to which concerns over Brexit played a role in the declaration is unclear. But the document pledges member states to 18 points, including: strengthening relationships between EFSA and individual state food safety institutions; sharing information on risk assessments; and supporting “the mission and the merging of strategic goals of EFSA and the member states in order to meet the challenges in the area of food and feed safety in all its forms.”