Give industry more time to adapt
This column was originally published in Meat Management in September 2021
At the time of writing the national news has been reporting on shortages of chicken being experienced by Nando’s causing closure of a number of their restaurants. This is just one example of what is being experienced across the food sector. Both the pingdemic and Brexit are impacting on this. There is a severe shortage of HGV drivers to deliver goods. The food industry needs government to listen to calls for adding food sector workers and HGV drivers to the shortage occupation list. With the requirement for health certificates for imports from the EU coming in from 1st of October this will add yet more complexity to the supply chain and could compound things.
Where changes such as this are within the gift of the UK to decide, industry would like to see government take heed of industry needing decent lead in times, with detailed information on the changes in advance rather than in webinars at the last minute. It would also help industry if timing of changes can be considered as this will be the second New Year Cliff-edge industry has to contend with, with full controls on imports from the EU due to begin on January 1st.
It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were lobbying for recognition of SPS checks as a separate issue to ‘customs checks’. These were constantly conflated as ‘the same thing’ by UK government but I think those that have experienced Border Control Post (BCP) checks and new export certification requirements for export to the EU since January 1st will be able to clearly describe the woes associated with the health certification requirements compared with customs.
Further challenges were expected for exporters to the EU in adapting to the new model health certificates that were due to come into play under the animal health law towards the end of August. However, there was some welcome news that the EU would extend the transition period for moving to the new certificates till early next year. This allows companies more time to familiarise themselves with the new certificates (especially for GB exporters who didn’t until 1st of Jan 2020 need to use export health certs for trading with the EU at all!). This also allows countries around the world exporting to the EU more time to load the certificates into their export certification systems. In the UK this system is EHCO but many countries have similar systems and it takes time to load new certificates across the vast number of commodities that require health certification and for the changes to be adapted to by exporters in the market of origin and importers in the market of destination. We know that the EU industry lobbied for more time and would like to see UK industry listened to in the UK in the same way.
As IMTA represents both importers and exporters we are very familiar with the issues that arise when changes to certification take place; poorly communicated changes can lead to delays in goods being cleared at the BCP. As signatories to the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement the EU (and now the UK independently) need to adhere to commitments to providing information on import and export documentation (e.g. new certificate versions) to importers and exporters and it is crucial that the same communications are shared well in advance with the exporting countries and the enforcement authorities at the BCPs of entry.