Details of the final deal between the UK and the European Union have just been announced in perhaps the most significant deal between the two parties since Brexit of 2016.
The deal agreed between UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, has been marked by the sanitary and phytosanitary goods (SPS) deal. As part of the agreement, access to British fishing waters will be granted to the EU until 2038; in exchange, British exports of food, animal, and other agricultural products (SPS) will see easier checks as red tape is removed, without any time limit.
This deal will allow burgers and shellfish, amongst other products, to be sold in the EU after a three-year hiatus. Under EU regulations, such shellfish must undergo purification before entering the EU market. Previously, UK exporters could send these shellfish to the EU for purification; however, post-Brexit, the EU required purification to occur within the UK prior to export.
Also discussed was a UK-EU defence deal, and cooperation on emissions trading: UK firms no longer need to pay £800 million on EU carbon taxes.
Starmer hosted EU leaders in the May 2025 UK-EU Summit, which Pedro Serrano, the EU ambassador to London, has described as the “culmination of enhanced contacts at the highest levels since the July 2024 [UK] elections”.
Something fishy?
Fishing has emerged as one of the most contentious industries, despite its low contribution to the UK’s total economic output (according to the Office for National Statistics, the fishing industry contributed 0.03%) and low workforce employment levels (there were fewer than 11,000 fishers in the UK in 2021). Its divisive nature is likely due to the concentration of fisheries in Scotland: in 2020, just under 70% of economic output from the fishing and aquaculture industry was generated in Scotland.
In December 2024, the UK and EU agreed on fishing opportunities for the EU for about 428,000 tonnes (estimated to be worth almost €1.4 billion).
While some lobbyists consider the fisheries deal a disaster, Tavish Scott, Chief Executive of Salmon Scotland, congratulated the UK government on securing a deal which will reduce “the time taken to get premium salmon to market”, and which will “ease the burden on our farmers, processors, and the communities they support.
The UK is still a net importer of fish and related products, and commentators fear this reliance will grow more entrenched. As such, Starmer also announced that the UK would invest £360 million into the domestic fishing industry.
Source: House of Commons Library
The UK agri-food sector accounts for approximately 13% of the workforce, and contributed over £147 billion to national Gross Value Added (GVA) as of 2022. The new SPS agreement should create more frictionless trade with the EU, potentially amounting to a 22.5% increase in agri-food exports, a 5.6% increase in imports, and a 0.22% increase in the sector’s GVA.
