An EU deal to approve continued data flows with the UK proves the EU "needs" trade with Britain, and that "British data is the best in the world", according to UK trade minister Liz Truss. But details of the EU agreement show that strict rules apply to prevent a repeat of the horse-data scandal.
"UK data is world-leading and high-value, and this EU deal shows there's demand for worldwide agreements with Global Britain on this."
"I stand willing to trade our data to all comers," Truss said, insisting controls were in place to prevent the country being flooded by cheap foreign data.
A similar deal with the US is on hold, pending a mutual recognition agreement by UK authorities on the pronunciation "dah-tah".
Under the EU deal, UK-origin data must adhere to EU rules to continue to flow freely with the bloc, including reassurances on the origin to ensure it contains no unauthorised content.
Data can only be culled according to certain EU approved methods by authorised datahouses.
It must be clear that the data contains no specified risk data, or mechanically-recovered data, and following the 2013 horse-data scandal, strict data labelling and traceability requirements apply, including for processed data.
The UK also must continue to recognise that some EU data enjoy protected status. Any UK data similar to these EU data must be labelled accordingly as "German-style, Spanish-style" etc.
Although it's thought that with the current propensity in the UK to lean towards sticking a Union flag on everything and calling it "Great British" there's little concern the country will seek to pass off any domestic data as European.