How a cheese ban drove a new wedge between the UK and EU

Relations between the the U.K. and European Union are arguably at the best they’ve been since the Brexit vote in 2016 but there’s an ongoing cold front between the neighbors over a ban on continental cheese and meat imports.

In April, Britain banned people from bringing all dairy products and a range of meats from the EU into the country for personal consumption, saying the prohibition was needed in order to prevent the possible spread of Foot and Mouth Disease among British livestock after outbreaks in Europe earlier this year.

British holidaymakers travelling to the continent were warned not to bring home foodstuffs such as cheese, chorizo, Serrano ham or sandwiches containing any of a wide range of banned products, even if they were sealed or bought in duty-free shops at airports. The ban extends to cakes, biscuits and chocolate containing a high level of unprocessed dairy products or fresh cream.

Those found with banned items were told they’d have to surrender them at the border, or have them seized and destroyed. Anyone flouting the restriction could receive a £5,000 fine (around $6,700), the government said.

The Brits’ ban did not apply to commercial food imports because they undergo more stringent biosecurity requirements, such as heat treatment and veterinary health certificates, the U.K. said.

Cheese shops in Paris — and particularly those situated around the Gare du Nord where Eurostar trains travel to and from the U.K. — say the restrictions have hit sales to a vital customer base.

“Tourists are very important, and especially English people,” Alexandre Vilaca, founder and manager of Fromagerie Ferdinand in Paris, told CNBC, noting that when he opened his cheese shop eight years ago, he had chosen the Gare du Nord neighborhood for its international visitors.

“These past few years, it was very important to have English clients. We vacuum-packed the cheese so they could travel easily to the U.K., and we started to have regular clients who used to pass by our shop in order to bring some gifts to the families and friends … But a few months ago, clients told me that it was forbidden to bring cheese back home,” he said.

“And it’s had a huge impact on our sales to U.K. clients,” he added.

Vilaca said the ban was largely nonsensical, given that the French authorities were “very, very strict” about sanitary controls and regular checks on cheese producers, their products and their distribution. English cheese producers Vilaca worked with were also upset by the ban, he noted.

“We are proud when clients take home some souvenirs, maybe some wine, some cheese — a bit of France in their bags, so to speak. So we don’t understand [the ban], we are quite upset and it is bad news because, in terms of business, it’s not great.”

Temporary bans on continental food products entering or exiting the U.K., or vice versa, are nothing new and it’s worth noting that the EU introduced a permanent ban on Brits bringing animal and dairy products, for personal consumption, into the bloc following Brexit for the same reasons: to prevent the spread of diseases.

Foot and Mouth Disease, or FMD, is a serious concern for a close-knit continent like the EU as it can spread very quickly, particularly given the region’s interconnected agricultural market and multiple transmission routes.

FMD does not pose a risk to humans but is highly contagious to cattle, sheep and pigs, with the disease able to spread rapidly among livestock, with devastating consequences.

Outbreaks of FMD were confirmed in Germany, Hungary and Slovakia earlier this year but they were contained after the countries’ rapidly implemented animal health control measures in the affected establishments, including the culling of livestock and protection and surveillance zones.

Those emergency measures were lifted after Germany was declared free of FMD in April, and Hungary and Slovakia have seen no new outbreaks since April.

In late July, the U.K. government’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) said in an assessment that “while the incursions of FMD into Europe earlier in the year were undoubtedly concerning, there have been no further reports since April, suggesting that the situation in Hungary and Slovakia is under control.”

While the report’s authors said the risk of incursion of FMD to the U.K. was, in July, was considered a ‘low (rare but can occur)’ risk, the report cautioned that FMD can remain undetected for several months.

The U.K. government told CNBC that, despite the containment of European FMD outbreaks, the ongoing ban on personal imports of cheese and many meats aimed to protect British farmers and U.K. food security.

“Earlier this year, we took immediate action to ban personal imports of meat and dairy from Europe after a wave of foot and mouth cases. We are also investing £1 billion [$1.3 billion] in a new National Biosecurity Centre to boost our world leading facilities and protect our farmers, food supply and economy,” a spokesman for Defra told CNBC.

“We will do whatever it takes to protect our farmers from animal disease,” the spokesperson added.

Almost six months into the ban, however, and questions are being asked whether the ongoing restrictions are excessive, and no longer necessary.

Defra stressed its not alone in implementing the current restrictions, and is only doing what the EU has been doing for several years, since Brexit, as standard practice.

Asked when the ban might be lifted, given that cases of FMD are now contained on the continent, Defra said the government’s “FMD response remains under constant review” and that it will “retain restrictions in England while personal imports of affected products pose biosecurity risks to Great Britain.”

The U.K. and EU have learned the hard way what an outbreak of FMD can cause.

The 2001 epidemic, which first broke out in the U.K. before spreading to the continent, had a devastating impact on the British farming community with over six million animals having to be destroyed and estimated to have cost the U.K.’s public and private sector a combined £8 billion.

In the EU, four million animals were destroyed and the outbreak is estimated to have cost member states 2.7 billion euros in terms of eradication measures and compensation to farmers.

The U.K.’s last outbreak, in 2007, only affected eight farms but was estimated to have cost £147 million overall, due to large-scale livestock movement bans.