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Irish companies exporting food to Europe using the UK land bridge will face additional complications in Calais because French authorities were “too quick” to develop their electronic system to deal with Brexit, RTÉ News has learned .
Under an agreement reached between the Irish government and the European Commission in June, shipments of Irish food crossing the UK land bridge would be exempted from a series of controls applied at continental ports.
However, it has emerged that because France had already developed its new automated system to control large volumes of trade coming from UK ports, the exemption will not apply in Calais, a major gateway for Irish food exports. to continental Europe.
The anomaly will fuel concerns about the attractiveness of the UK land bridge for food exporters after Brexit.
There will be no controls for food shipments sent directly from Ireland to France by ferry, as movements within the EU that do not operate under the transit system will be considered.
Under a new EU regulation, which came into force last December, products entering the EU from a third country must register with the EU’s food safety and animal health traceability systems known as TRACES.
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In particular, live animals, animal products, plants and reproductive products, used in animal husbandry, would be subject to time-consuming and potentially costly procedures, even if they were in transit from one part of the EU to another via through a third country.
Irish exporters of such products would have to notify European ports in advance that the goods were eligible for sanitary and phytosanitary controls (SPS).
The formality left open the possibility that port authorities applying EU food safety standards will reject an Irish food shipment.
With the TRACES system, food exporters were also required to have a separate export health certificate for each type of animal product, which means that mixed shipments would have required an enormous amount of expensive paperwork.
As Irish food exports transiting the land bridge would not meet this requirement, as they would come from a third country as of January 1, the Irish government pressured both the Commission and other EU capitals to a repeal, which the EU granted after a series of meetings in June.
Under the deal, Irish exporters could use an alternative IT system, which governs transit movements around the world.
The Commission agreed that Irish trade flows over the land bridge could be based on the NCTS (New Computerized Transit System), which collects all relevant data, including customs and health information.
However, it has emerged that the repeal has been hampered by the speed with which the French government established its own IT system to deal with post-Brexit cross-channel transport flows.
Officials say that because the French system was already in place, it will not be able to differentiate Irish from British trucks, meaning that the simplifications agreed by the European Commission and member states will not be available to Irish food exporters who enter Calais.
This is because the French application drivers they will have to use will require prior notification in the TRACES system. Officials say that because the entire French system is automated, it will not be possible to change the application to suit Irish exporters.
Therefore, food exporters using the Calais gateway to Europe will need to complete both NCTS transit and TRACES formalities, and these will need to be completed before the goods leave Ireland.
Exporters using the land bridge and crossing directly into Belgian or Dutch ports will be able to benefit from the exception.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs told RTÉ News: “Ireland has IT’s ability to use the information provided in the New Computerized Transit System (NCTS) and Customs pre-shipment notification service to facilitate advance notification. of the shipment details to the Border Control Post as an alternative to the operators that provide this notification in TRACES.
“The Belgian system can do the same. However, the French IT system relies on the Common Health Entry Document (CHED) submitted by the operator in TRACES-NT to provide the necessary information.”
The spokesperson added: “While France has adopted a different model, once the French authorities do not notice problems with the traffic and the responsible operators have completed all the stages correctly (including with respect to TRACES), the driver will receive a route ‘ green ‘and leaving the port without interacting with the French sanitary and phytosanitary authorities. The green route of shipments is a significant facilitation. “
It is understood that the Government will be in contact with the French authorities to see if the system can be adapted to recognize Irish trade flows and allow the facilities to come into effect.
“We will continue our ongoing contact with our EU partners on this issue in the run-up to the end of the transition period and in 2021,” the spokesperson said.
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