Falconer said the UK will be involved in a process to shape the rules and that the deal could help bring down prices for shoppers. The reset would not involve any upfront payments, but Falconer made clear there could be an 'exit clause' in case a future UK government reversed the closer alignment. He said it was 'reasonable' to consider what would happen if a future Conservative or Reform government wanted to undo the new arrangements. 'The EU is worried about that and you can see why,' he said.
The BBC understands that the clause is a result of EU concerns about the possible cost of having to rebuild facilities for border food safety checks which were put in place following Brexit; the reset means they will be dismantled.
The wider agreement to be signed on Friday includes aligning emissions trading rules, agreeing to a youth mobility scheme, and the reset on food trading. The whole deal is calculated to add 0.4% to UK GDP.
Falconer said the deal would help bring down costs for firms importing food. Speaking at a Marks & Spencer food court in central London, he said: 'This will mean less cost for supermarkets, and I hope that less cost then turns into cheaper produce on the shelves.' He said currently 'pages and pages' of form-filling meant some suppliers had given up exporting to the EU and some products, such as Lincolnshire sausages, were almost impossible to export at all.
Some M&S trucks require over 300 pages of documents for food exports, from export health certificates to border check paperwork. Some exports are rejected for having the wrong colour of ink on forms or an inaccurate Latin name for cooked meats. 'The amount of paperwork you would need to do, the amount of uncertainty, you have to have it in the right pen colour, if it's not black, it might be refused,' Falconer said. 'If you're selling Cox apples from Kent, they have to wait a day before they go into the European Union.'
The reset could also mean 'tearing up' checks introduced on goods flowing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland following Brexit, as well as separate 'Not for EU' labelling. Falconer said the impact of the reset deal for food would be an additional £5bn.
Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers' Union, welcomed reduced border inspections and paperwork but said for the NFU it was 'a moment of opportunity and risk' with farmers waiting to see what carve-outs and transitional arrangements would be included. Trade volumes in food exports to the EU had 'fallen significantly, by over a third' since 2019, he said. He raised pesticides and precision breeding as areas where he hoped some compromise would be found. Falconer said people would have to 'wait and see the detail' in that area.
Another contentious area has been crisp flavourings, with concerns raised that stricter EU rules on certain ingredients might limit the sale of some popular snack flavours in the UK. 'I want to take this opportunity to absolutely stamp down on misinformation about smoky bacon crisps,' Falconer said. Post-Brexit the UK had stayed 'pretty closely aligned' to European food safety standards, he said. Two leading snack brands had already adapted their recipes to accommodate EU rules, an example of the kind of alignment that would happen whether or not there was a reset. 'The truth is, almost every business in this country that wants to export food or drink will be aligning with EU rules because it's our biggest market. Lots of people, like the good people at Walkers and Frazzles have made these changes already, so I would want to reassure people, particularly smoky bacon fans, it's okay,' he said.