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The government is aiming to negotiate an "ambitious" new agri-food agreement with the European Union which will ease the problems of trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The minister for the constitution and European relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds, on a visit to Belfast, said he hoped formal negotiations could begin early next year

Mr Thomas-Symonds met Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir as well as the chair and deputy chair of the Windsor Framework committee at Stormont.

Afterwards he told journalists that when negotiating with the EU his intention is to have Northern Ireland at the forefront of his mind.

"We voted for the Windsor Framework as an opposition party, " the minister said.

"I know it is really important with the European Union that we have good faith in implementing the Windsor Framework going forward in the medium term in terms of an SPS [sanitary and phytosanitary] agreement, because I'm sure you'll all appreciate it's not going to just appear, it's going to need to be negotiated."

Mr Thomas-Symonds said conversations were ongoing with the European Union but a new commission "won't be formally in place until towards the end of the year."

He added that he would not expect "hard edged, formal negotiations" to begin until the early part of next year.

"But do I hope that an SPS agreement, an ambitious SPS agreement, is going to ease the situation in terms of GB/NI trade? Absolutely, yes."

An SPS agreement relates to food safety and animal and plant health.

Labour has already said it will seek a new agreement which allows retail agri-food goods, plants, seed potatoes and other items to be traded between the UK and EU with the aim to “eliminate most border checks created by the Tory Brexit deal".

It is hoped such a deal could at a stroke sweep away the most obvious physical impacts of the post-Brexit Irish Sea border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

In simple terms, if a deal ends checks on goods moving from Calais to Dover then checks will also end from Cairnryan to Belfast.