Latest Great news for food and drink industry…..

Michael Gove has announced to parliament that after leaving the EU at the end of 2020 and agreeing terms within the Trade & Cooperation Agreement we will extend the easement son offer to the food and drink industry by a further 6 months. This means the mad panic to be ready has dissipated and new processes can be developed and refined. It does not mean we should do anything to get the processes in place. The need to be ready and to understand the processes to import and export have never been clearer. Read all the full announcement here.

• Pre-notification requirements for Products of Animal Origin (POAO), certain animal by-products (ABP), and High-Risk Food Not Of Animal Origin (HRFNAO) will not be required until 1 October 2021. Export Health Certificate requirements for POAO and certain ABP will come into force on the same date.
• Customs import declarations will still be required, but the option to use the deferred declaration scheme, including submitting supplementary declarations up to six months after the goods have been imported, has been extended to 1 January 2022.
• Safety and Security Declarations for imports will not be required until 1 January 2022.
• Physical SPS checks for POAO, certain ABP, and HRFNAO will not be required until 1 January 2022. At that point they will take place at Border Control Posts.
• Physical SPS checks on high-risk plants will take place at Border Control Posts, rather than at the place of destination as now, from 1 January 2022.
• Pre-notification requirements and documentary checks, including phytosanitary certificates will be required for low-risk plants and plant products, and will be introduced from 1 January 2022.
• From March 2022, checks at Border Control Posts will take place on live animals and low risk plants and plant products.
• Traders moving controlled goods into Great Britain will continue to be ineligible for the deferred customs declaration approach. They will therefore be required to complete a full customs declaration when the goods enter Great Britain.
• Controls and checks on Sanitary and Phytosanitary goods are of course a devolved matter and we continue to work closely with the Devolved Administrations on their implementation, in particular with the Welsh Government on their timetable for completing supporting Border Control Post infrastructure in Wales.

The Government assures us they will continue to engage extensively with businesses to support them to adjust to the new requirements already in place and to prepare for the new requirements set out above so that they can continue to trade successfully under the new arrangements.

11th March 2021