The document warns that the supply of UK veterinary medicines could be disturbed, which “would reduce our ability to prevent and control disease outbreaks, with potential detrimental impacts for animal health and welfare, the environment, wider food safety/availability and zoonotic disease control which can directly impact human health”.
It comes after a Cabinet minister warned that food prices would increase by one or two per cent if there is a failure to reach a deal in Brussels.
George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, acknowledged that there would be “some impact” on food prices in such an event, despite ministers having previously promised that food would be cheaper for British shoppers.
He said: “Obviously if we don’t have a trade agreement with the EU we will be applying tariffs to some of those imports and that’s likely to mean that in the short term there would be a small, modest increase in food prices.”
During the Vote Leave campaign, one of its pledges was that Brexit would make food cheaper.
But Mr Eustice conceded that items such as pork and beef were likely to see price rises, although he told The Andrew Marr Show that meat products “make up a relatively small proportion of the overall family shop”.
He told Times Radio that the cost of food would “depend to some extent on the types of trade agreements we do with the EU and other countries but Government policy is to try to keep food prices stable”.
It comes after the British Retail Consortium warned no deal would cost consumers £3.1 billion in tariffs on food and drink. Currently, the UK does not pay tariffs on goods, including food products, coming in from other EU countries.
The British Retail Consortium said that around 85 percent of food products imported from the EU will face tariffs of more than 5 per cent, with the average more than 20 per cent.
