Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 24 January 2024
174. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his assessment of the likely impact of new United Kingdom import controls; the action by his Department in relation to this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3352/24]
View answerOn 31 January, the UK is introducing new import controls on goods from the EU, including Ireland.
There are three significant changes which Irish exporters to GB and their supply chain partners must meet from this date:
Full UK customs import declarations must be lodged on the UK customs systems in advance of all goods entering GB.
All animal products and all high and medium risk plant products imported to GB must be pre-notified on UK food and feed import system, by the GB importer of the goods or their GB based agent.
For animal and plant products which have been categorised as high or medium risk by the UK, they will require export health certification.
The Government including my Department continues to support agri-food businesses in preparing for these new UK import requirements which are a direct consequence of Brexit.
These preparations have included:
• Extensive information/communications plan including information webinars, engagement with stakeholder groups, circulation of information and guidance to over 1,000 businesses involved in the agri-food sector supply chain, a whole of government media awareness campaign.
• Comprehensive training programmes for food businesses on export health certification processes and the EU TRACES IT system;
• Detailed resource planning to support certification including recruitment and deployment of appropriate veterinary and technical certifying resources;
• Direct and intensive engagement between local competent authority supervisory teams with individual Food businesses to agree processes to meet UK requirements.
• Engagement with UK authorities to bring clarity to UK requirements and how they will be implemented.
The new UK import requirements do present significant changes for Irish exporters and the EU-UK trading environment and will require food businesses, their logistics providers and GB customers to adapt the current supply chains to meet the new UK requirements.
My department and the Government will continue to carefully monitor the impact of the new requirements, and will continue to support businesses in meeting the new UK import requirements including the additional UK border entry controls which will be phased by UK authorities later in 2024.
