Proposals to remove trade barriers for UK businesses exporting to the European Union have been welcomed by businesses.
The government wants a permanent deal on food regulation to ease trade barriers, after more than £60 million has been spent by UK food exporters on licences to sell agricultural products to the continental bloc in each of the past four years.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the EU Relations Minister, will say in a speech today that he aims to sign new agreement with the EU in the next 18 months, which will eliminate these costs and other barriers.
Such an agricultural agreement forms part of a wider deal with the EU announced by Prime Minister Keir Starmer in May.
The British Chambers of Commerce said a strong agri-food deal "will remove costs, red tape and delays for UK businesses".
Removing such costs "will reduce inflationary pressures and make supply chains more secure", said the BCC's head of trade policy, William Bain.
"A permanent deal with the EU can’t come soon enough for UK firms. In the talks ahead ministers must deliver a deal that truly unburdens business and cuts costs. Consumers will then reap the benefits in their shopping baskets.
"Making trade with the EU quicker, cheaper and simpler is crucial to boosting economic growth in the years ahead."
Thomas-Symonds' speech, which was released to the media in advance, also took aim at Reform's Nigel Farage manifesto plans on migration, arguing that the Reform agenda "will say in writing he wants to take Britain backwards, cutting at least £9 billion from the economy, bringing with it a risk to jobs and a risk of food prices going up".
Thomas-Symonds will add: "Nigel Farage wants Britain to fail. His model of politics feeds on it, offering the easy answers, dividing communities and stoking anger."