UK food and drink exports fall as US tariffs and Brexit trade friction bites – business live

UK food and drink exports hit by US tariffs and Brexit trade friction Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy. UK food and drink manufacturers are losing ground to global competitors, the industry fears, after exports fell to the lowest in a decade. The Food and Drink Federation’s (FDF) latest Trade Snapshot report shows that UK food and drink exports fell by 4.8% year-on-year, to £5.7bn, in the first quarter of this year. In volume terms, exports in January-March were down 8.9% to the lowest level for the period in the last decade (if you exclude 2021 when the Covid pandemic hit shipments), the FDF warns. Ten years on from the Brexit referendum, it’s notable that EU export volumes fell by 6.9%, which the FDF blames on “the added cost and complexity of trading with our closest trade partner since Brexit”. The federation hopes that the new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement being hammered out by London and Brussels will cut some trade friction, by removing paperwork and reducing border checks. But the biggest damage has been inflicted on exports to the US, which tumbled by 28% after Donald Trump’s trade wars disrupted transalantic trade. Karen Betts, chief executive at The Food and Drink Federation (FDF): double quotation mark “Food and drink businesses are part of the fabric of every community in the UK, and it’s concerning to see them struggling to compete overseas. …