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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect on the efficient functioning of the UK food sector of aligning manufacturing and farming but not services in that sector.

The Future Partnership White Paper proposes a free trade area for goods, including agri-food, underpinned by a common rulebook. The UK will make an upfront choice to commit, by treaty, to ongoing harmonisation with the EU rules on goods and agri-food that are necessary to provide frictionless trade at the border.

Avoiding a hard border and ensuring the greatest possible tariff-free and frictionless trade of agri-food products between the UK and EU is a key priority of this government. Our proposal for a common rule book would negate the need to conduct additional regulatory checks at the border whilst still ensuring our high standards for animal and plant health and welfare.

The arrangements proposed in the Future Partnership White Paper will ensure that service suppliers and investors are able to operate in a broad number of sectors without encountering unjustified barriers or discrimination. There would be new arrangements for services that would provide important flexibility for the UK’s service based economy.