British food and drink industry call on EU to ‘reset’ trade ties

Retailers and food producers offer to help efforts to reduce unnecessary red tape' costing industry billions of pounds

More than a dozen of Britain's biggest retailers and food producers, including Marks & Spencer, J Sainsbury and Asda, have called on the EU to reduce checks on food and drink crossing the Channel and Irish Sea, which they say are costing billions of pounds.

Ahead of a summit on 19 May that is hoped to reset" trade ties five years on from Brexit, they are urging politicians to hammer out a deal on sanitary and phytosanitary checks. They hope this would include a veterinary agreement and would harmonise food safety rules or recognise them as equivalent.