Government to promise it will scrap existing scheme by reaching new deal with Brussels in next 18 months
UK companies spent up to £65m last year on licences to export food and agricultural products to the EU – costs that the government is promising to eliminate as part of a new deal to be agreed by 2027.
Government figures released on Tuesday showed it issued 328,727 such licences last year, at a cost of between £113 and £200 each. That would put the total cost to business at somewhere between £37m and £65m.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister in charge of European negotiations, will on Wednesday pledge to eliminate such costs as he promises a new agreement with the EU in the next 18 months.
In an event at the Spectator offices in London to be hosted by the leading Brexiter Michael Gove, Thomas-Symonds will make a vocally political argument for becoming closer to the EU.
