Lords committee to assess potential UK-EU SPS agreement and its impact on agri-food trade

Tomorrow, Tuesday 17 June, the House of Lords European Affairs Committee will continue its inquiry into the UK-EU reset. The session will focus on the prospective UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement which was agreed at the recent UK-EU Summit on 19 May, with the aim of easing trade in agri-food products.

On Tuesday 17 June at 3.30pm, the Committee will hear from:  

• Tom Bradshaw, President at National Farmers Union (NFU)  

• Professor Emily Lydgate, Professor of Environmental Law at University of Sussex  

• William Bain, Head of Trade Policy at British Chambers of Commerce  

The session will take place in Committee Room 1, Palace of Westminster, and can be watched live, or after the meeting, on Parliamentlive.tv. 

The Committee's questions are likely to cover:  

• Assessment of what was agreed at the UK-EU Summit on 19 May 

• What frictions the SPS agreement would remove and what would remain 

• The forthcoming negotiations with the EU on the SPS agreement 

• The EU's recent SPS agreement with Switzerland 

• Compatibility with the UK's existing and prospective free trade agreements with countries outside the EU 

• The amount of EU legislation and regulation the UK would be obliged to dynamically align with under the prospective SPS agreement 
  

The committee will be joined by members of the House of Lords Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee who will ask witnesses questions on topics including: 

• How a UK-EU SPS agreement would affect Northern Ireland and the Windsor Framework 

• How an SPS agreement would affect the potential for East-West divergence between GB and Northern Ireland 

• The implications of UK ‘decision-shaping' for Northern Ireland