Defra’s Plant Health Division will implement the amended European plant health regime from April 1, 2005, but unfortunately it will be no joke for importers.

Inspections of products subject to plant health controls will begin on 1 April 2005. Charging for inspections will begin on the same day.

The basis of charging will be a single entry on the CHIEF system. The charging structure for the first 12 months will be confirmed by a Statutory Instrument passed by Parliament and will be broadly in line with the rates laid out in the original EU Directive. Charges during the second year will be based on a full recovery of costs.

We urge importers to register with Defra plant health as soon as possible, because HM Customs may refuse entry to consignments brought in by unregistered importers. Defra will be writing to all importers listed on the customs CHIEF database to invite them to register, or alternatively go direct to the Defra website www.defra.gov.uk/plant/imp.htm.

Prior notification of arrivals will eventually be required. It is planned to develop the PEACH system to allow notification to the plant health authorities, but this has been delayed. There will be no requirement for prior notification until the system changes have been completed, which is expected to be Autumn 2005.

About forty points of entry have been registered with Brussels for the purposes of plant health-controlled products. Consignments of such products at non-registered ports will be held up by customs until an inspection can be arranged. The list of registered points of entry is available from www.defra.gov.uk/planth/commlist.htm.

We have already notified members of the products that have qualified for reduced plant health checks. We expect information on why some trades did not achieve reduced checks to be available shortly.

To minimise the potential for delay we would encourage the use of Customs Freight Simplified Procedure (CFSP) or alternatives, but final clarification between HM Customs and Defra Plant Health on the acceptability of such methods is still outstanding.

Many details still require clarification from Defra and the lead time to implementation is limited, but we would encourage you to register on the Defra website as soon as possible and review our newsletters and the Defra website for the latest information.

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