Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to facilitate the export of livestock to the EU for breeding purposes.

As a result of the UK leaving the EU and becoming an independent trading nation, there are rules to follow and specific actions to take for GB exporters. The UK was granted third country listed status by the EU on 28 December 2020. This meant that, as an independent trading nation and a non-EU country, the UK continues to export goods, including live animals for breeding purposes and animal products, to the EU after 1 January 2021. The sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) chapter of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement puts in place a framework that allows the UK and the EU to take informed decisions to reduce their respective SPS controls, with a commitment to avoid unnecessary barriers to trade. It is in both the UK and EU’s interests to use this framework to reduce or streamline SPS checks where possible, ensuring that they are proportionate to the biosecurity risks.