The Government has announced that new Brexit legislation for food imports from the EU, which were due to begin April, have been pushed back until October.
The new rules, which would have required manufacturers to produce new health assessment forms when exporting to the EU, were set to begin from next month. However, Minister Michael Gove confirmed that the new legislation would be pushed back until October in order to ease pressure at the border. He added that Covid-19 had created “greater disruption” than expected.
Other customs declarations which were due to begin in July have also been rescheduled for January 2022.
“Government must now use this time to do everything it can to support UK food and drink exporters who continue to face huge difficulties moving goods into the EU."
Ian Wright CBE, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), said the new legislation would have made exporting “unviable” for food manufacturers.
Wright commented: “The FDF welcomes this sensible and pragmatic step to ensure that food and drink continues to flow, and allows manufacturers access to the inputs and ingredients they need in order to continue producing the full range of products for UK shoppers and consumers.
“Government must now use this time to do everything it can to support UK food and drink exporters who continue to face huge difficulties moving goods into the EU. They must work constructively with the EU to address barriers to trade by improving the implementation of the trade agreement and streamlining processes.”
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
