Brexit Could Reopen U.K.’s 30-Year EU Chocolate War, Clegg Warns
- Food prices would rise under ‘hard Brexit’: former deputy PM
- U.K. exporters to be hit if Britain leaves EU single market
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A 30-year battle between Britain and the European Union over chocolate, which was only settled by a court ruling in 2003, could reopen when the U.K. quits the bloc, former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg warned Monday.
British chocolate manufacturers fought for the right to sell chocolate containing vegetable fat, which their continental competitors said was not as pure as the products they were marketing and should be branded “vegelate” or “chocolate substitute.” In 2000 a compromise was reached to call it “family chocolate” and the European Court ordered Italy and Spain, the most vociferous opponents, to allow its sale three years later.