EU's TRACES in the UK
With negotiations for dynamic alignment of the United Kingdom, legislation with that of the European Union is likely to continue apace. Despite a change in Prime Minister in the UK it is worth it for organic operators to consider their processes and the likely need to prepare for changes.
Assuming alignment occurs on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) regulations -and although timescales are not clear this seems very likely- then the main change to be noticed by operators involved in import and export, will be the move to the use of the EU’s TRACES system. To quote the EU’s website, TRACES is the European Commission’s online platform for animal and plant health certification. This is required for the importation of animals, animal products, food and feed of non-animal origin and plants into the European Union, as well as the intra-EU trade and EU exports of animals and certain animal products.
Operators either in the UK or exporting to the UK, and their Control Bodies or Authorities trading in products affected by this, will need to be aware of the general need to use TRACES for the above purposes. Moreover, they should ensure their full preparation for it. In addition to the overall requirements to use the TRACES system correctly, and in order to ensure food safety and phytosanitary protection, organic operators will be affected by the move to use TRACES in the UK as it is used across the EU to ensure correct control of organic products.
Products imported into the UK will require an electronic Certificate of Inspection on the TRACES system, which is already the process followed by the EU. For some UK based importers, this will be a change to the current UK system, so training will be required. Some may already be operating a TRACES based system to import directly into the EU, so they will be less affected by this need.
The advantage of this change for UK operators exporting to the EU, will of course be that they will no longer be regarded as Third Country exporters. Because of this, administration time and costs will be greatly reduced and transport logistics will be significantly improved.
Time will tell what the details of implementation will be, but all businesses that will presumably be affected by the changes, will be well advised to be prepared for them, as they are likely to happen. It should be noted that this will include First Consignees cited on the Certificate of Inspection, so some of those may need introductory training and registration on TRACES.
Robin Fransella, robin.fransella@rforganic.org