What are rollover agreements?

To maintain favourable trade terms before the UK stopped benefitting from EU trade agreements in January 2021, the government sought to reach UK-only agreements with many of the same countries.

These are called rollover agreements because they roll over similar provisions into UK-only deals.

As of June 2021, the government had rolled over 36 EU agreements and was in talks for a further 3 (Algeria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro).

In addition, the UK signed an agreement that went beyond rollover terms with Japan in areas such as financial services.

However it is less advantageous on export quotas for agricultural products, where the UK receives any leftovers from the EU’s quote. 

Although they replicate most of their previous EU equivalents, rollover agreements are not identical.

The UK had also rolled over mutual recognition agreements with six countries.