British sausage makers face EU freeze after Brexit - my latest via @FT with ⁦ @JudithREvans⁩ ...a tale that illustrates how many odds and sods need tying up. Stay with me! 1/thread https://on.ft.com/37sxphk 

So first the issue itself, and then the question: is it really a big deal? Can't it be, won't it be fixed?

The issue: on current EU 'export health certificates' there is basically no 'box' to tick that allows meat 'preparations' (sausages, mince etc) to be sent in chilled form/2

So here is a specimen certificate for beef products put out by @DefraGovUK recently...you'll see mince must be frozen. Which is a problem if a) your client wants it chilled b) doesn't have facilities to defrost c) wants premium product /3

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5f687df7d3bf7f7234487c85/Draft-8261_English_V1.pdf

So as Gavin Morris of @DunbiaGroup meat processors group says, the expectation in UK industry is that a lot of EU clients will just shop elsewhere..."The clients will say ‘we don’t want it frozen, thanks very much, we’ll source from somewhere else’." /4

So I can already hear you asking - can this really be "a thing"?

I mean, yes, there is no box currently on the Export Health Certificate...but then there is no 'third country' like the UK in size n proximity...so surely this can be sorted? /5

Well, you'd think so - Ireland for example (and we'll come to Northern Ireland in sec) has a huge interest in getting this done. And there isn't a technical reason why it shouldn't be sorted...but at the moment as the brilliant Peter Hardwick of @BMPA_INFO tells me, it isn't./6

I did ask @DefraGovUK is they could reassure us on this point - it would be fixed/was in process of being fixed, but they weren't overly reassuring, beyond noting that they were engaging with EU and were helping companies "comply with future importing rules". EEK./7

All this not by way of 'project fear' or #Brexit Armageddon (tho worrying if you make sausages) but to illustrate the petty realities of the loose ends that need tying up - the UK will be signing up to 300,000 of these certificates next year per Defra sec; 5x present /8

So will it be sorted? In a deal? Well, we probably won't know until quite late in the day, since SPS regimes is not actually part of the FTA, or doesn't have to be. It's a matter for the EU to change its rules; offer UK a derogation in light of unique situation/9

And in a 'no deal'? That, presumably is going to be much trickier.

And there is one other question? What about Northern Ireland - where everything needs to be compliant with EU customs code? As @MichaelAodhan says to me, they've been raising this since Jan? Well.../10

Talks are on-going over the implementation of the Irish Protocol and there has been lots of talks about exemptions for supermarkets etc, because as things stand, all those sausages or marinated chops en route to Belfast would need to be frozen, I think. /11

Well, again, in terms of obligation in the Protocol to maintain integrity of UK internal market etc. you'd have to think that it will be sorted for NI - I hear quiet confidence it will be. Though the sooner there is certainty the better /12

Anyway - an interesting little #Brexit cul-de-sac for a Wednesday morning. Makes you wonder how many more of these kinds of wrinkles are out there...and how rigidly they will be enforced etc.

But makes me feel we need a deal...

ENDS