Burnham set to unveil billions in EU trade deals, from pet passports to youth visas

Andy Burnham is about to put billions of pounds of EU trade deals on the table. Officials on both sides have all but signed off three agreements covering farm exports, emissions trading and youth mobility, and the prime minister is due to announce them when he meets European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president António Costa in Brussels on 20 November. The final texts are close, though a few details still need ironing out — including how many under-30s each side will let in.

Burnham says the package is worth £17bn to the UK economy, a bump of 0.4%. “A deal could add up to 0.4% to GDP. Now that is a number that you cannot ignore,” he told the Economist on Tuesday. The agricultural agreement alone is expected to be worth more than £5bn by 2040.

Pet owners and farmers get the clearest wins. Brits travelling with animals would no longer need a certificate to move live animals into Europe, and pets would travel on a passport instead of reams of paperwork. UK producers could keep selling some products banned under EU law — certain pesticides among them — during a “transition period”, while trade in live molluscs and Scottish salmon would open up. A youth visa scheme would let tens of thousands of people under 30 live, work and travel on both sides, with each EU member state getting its own quota and the UK negotiating an emergency brake if a country refuses to issue its share.

Not everyone is cheering. Britain will pay the EU for access to its emissions trading scheme — a move designed to dodge a cross-border carbon tax landing in January, but one critics call a surrender to the very rules the country left the bloc to avoid. Parts of the agreement won’t take effect until 2028, though those close to the talks insist disputes over European industrial policy and UK university fees won’t derail it.

A second track of talks is already running on a joint statement covering future cooperation. A draft seen by the Guardian, written by the EU and not yet agreed by the UK, calls the two sides “trusted partners” and floats lower fees for European students within six months. But Europe wants Britain to sign up to higher tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles — something UK ministers and businesses are resisting — and has flagged a likely UK contribution to the EU’s “cohesion” budget, which London hasn’t signed off. The EU has also raised concerns about UK plans to speed up deportations of foreign national offenders, and is pushing London to drop them.

Burnham is playing a longer game. Advisers believe the deals strengthen his push for much closer ties with the bloc, and potentially re-entry. He told ITV that public opinion “has changed nationally” but insisted he “will not run ahead” of it, adding: “The public need to be the boss.” Downing Street says a bigger vision speech will land “around the time of the summit”, though it hasn’t decided whether that’s before, during or after.