EU may block import of GMO crops from Britain if country allows biotech crops post-Brexit

Plans to grow genetically modified crops in Britain could result in the EU blocking imports of the produce after Brexit, according to a leaked report by European parliament officials.

The internal paper, written to guide the parliament’s agriculture committee in its “scrutiny of Brexit”, says that British farmers seeking to sell produce to the remaining 27 member states could be hampered by multiple barriers on top of tariffs averaging 14 per cent.

The officials’ note reports that Britain is developing new rules to make GM crop cultivation easier after pulling out of the EU. Political opposition to GM foods in several EU states has resulted in only one GM crop being approved by the bloc in the past 20 years.

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[In January 2017,] the [UK] government approved field trials of GM wheat engineered to use sunlight more efficiently and produce bigger grains. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is expected to approve trials of a potato genetically modified to be resistant to blight.

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