This appears to be coming from George Eustice at whatever the environment agency is called these days. At least, it’s going out over his name which makes him the Minister responsible:

The decision means that companies exporting brands such as Evian, Volvic, Perrier and St Pellegrino will face additional red tape. Last year, about €114m (£98m) worth of mineral water was imported to the UK from the EU, according to the Eurostat agency. Currently any water recognised as “natural mineral water” by an authority in an EU member state is automatically recognised in the UK. From Jan 7, suppliers will have to have their water recognised by Food Standards Scotland, Defra or the Food Standards Agency, or be banned from Britain. British mineral waters have had to apply for recognition in an EU member state before exporting to the bloc since Brexit took effect on Dec 31.

As everyone who has ever bothered to crack open an economics book knows the purpose of trade is to get our hand - or gullets - upon those lovely things made by Johnny Foreigner. Putting bureaucratic barriers in the way of our doing so is therefore not a good trade policy.

Note that no claim is being made that those foreign regulations are no good, inadequate or lacking in some manner. The actual claim being made is that the governments of the remnant European Union are making their citizenry poorer therefore the British government must make Britons poorer in retaliation.

This doesn’t really work as logic now, does it? It being just yet another proof that the correct tit for tat response to repeated iterations of the Prisoners’ Dilemma does not work for trade issues. The actual correct trade policy, even in the face of provocations by those damn’d foreigners, is unilateral free trade. You do whatever you want and we’ll do what is best for our folks here at home.

That best being that the British government should not be putting artificial barriers in the way of Britons enjoying whatever mineral water it pleases Britons to enjoy. Or, to put it the other way around, what in heck is a British minister doing deliberately plotting to make Britons poorer. Doesn’t he work for us?

Still, in that desperate search for a silver lining in absolutely anything at least he’s only at environment, not trade.