The fatal flaw with "Intensified Official Controls" at the EU border

Defra has just published some timely guidance on Intensified Official Controls at the EU border and what to do if a consignment of animal products gets caught up in such checks. But simply knowing the rules won't shield companies from the commercial damage that lengthy waits for test results will inflict.

Intensified Official Controls will only be applied to a company's consignments after a repeated failure to meet relevant import requirements. If that threshold is breached, the next 10 consignments of the same type of product can be stopped and held while being subjected to extra checks and testing. Some of these tests can take up to three weeks to be returned which renders exports completely un-viable.

BMPA is currently in discussions with Defra to see if an alternative to this system can be devised which satisfies EU authorities that compliance is being achieved, but that doesn't require 10 lorry loads of perishable product to be sent to a border post knowing each will be stuck there too long awaiting test results.

Ultimately the EU border authorities will need to be party to designing a better system and BMPA will be asking Defra to intercede on behalf of the British Meat Industry to facilitate that. We'll keep you posted on how this progresses.