Minutes of the Fifth BFFF/Seafish Importers Committee Meeting Held at the Novotel, London On Thursday 4 th February 2010 1. Welcome Present Brian Young (BY) British Frozen Food Federation (Chairman) Bill Mooney (BM) Ruskim Seafoods Derek Golding (DG) Seahawk Marine Foods Paul Darnell (PD) Oceanwide Seafoods Steve Pell (SP) Peninsula Seafoods Robert Bulman (RB) Mardon PLC Barry Edwards (BE) Swallow Foods Ollie Giblin (OG) Sea Products International Peter Stagg (PS) Le Lien Heike Jenkins (HJ) SeaTrading Co Kathryn Broadburn (KB) - Icelandic Mike Short (MS) Food and Drink Federation Ian Farley (IF) British Frozen Food Federation Paul Riches (PR) Defra (part) Alistair McDonnell (AM) MFA IUU Compliance Unit (Part) Kirsty Dawes (KD) Suffolk Coastal PHA/Defra (Part) Shondeep Banerji (SB) - SITPRO Jon Harman (JH) Seafish Karen Green (KG) Seafish Ivan Bartolo (IB) Seafish Malcolm Large (ML) - Seafish Committee Chairman, Brian Young welcomed all the delegates. Apologies were received from: Stephen Brown, Landauer; Steve Elkins, New England Seafoods; Derek Louden, Scotchfrost and Paul Williams, Seafish. 2. Minutes from the Meeting held on 5 th October 2009 The minutes were accepted as a true record of the meeting. 3. Matters arising Seafish have published a list of none compliant third countries on the website. Of greatest concern is that as of 3 rd February Russia had still not notified the Commission of their competent authority. It was being reported by IntraFish on 4 th February that Russia had notified that day. These reports are unconfirmed.
In the case of fraudulent catch certificates, AM confirmed that the importer is liable and a public interest assessment would be made before any prosecution. Importers could mitigate if they show due diligence. KD outlined a four tier charging system that would be discussed by PHAs whereby it would be likely that less risky consignments would be charged less. Charges will be reviewed in April. FSA have not provided a list of contacts. Despite the UK being against, lobbying from Stephen Brown and SIPA and a letter from Dr Paul Williams of Seafish it is very unlikely that the EU will make any concessions on GSP rules of origin. Action Points ML to chase a contact list and invite the FSA to attend the next meeting. Seafish to develop the IUU risk protocol. KD to keep the Committee informed of PHA charges for inspecting catch certificates. 4. EU IUU Regulations Update PR, AM and KD updated the meeting on the progress of the EU IUU regulations. The main points are: The Committee members were keen to point out that the Commission could be more proactive in communicating problems with third countries. Importers need clear advice as soon as possible so that they can avoid entering into contracts with problem countries. Togo has been removed from the approved list of third countries due to a high proportion of their flag vessels being on IUU blacklists. Panama is a non compliant country and given that Panamanian flagged vessels operate throughout the world this could cause a problem. It was confirmed that importers wishing to apply for APEO status must import a minimum number of 50 consignments per year. In some cases it was asserted that the minimum notice of 72hours would be impractical. KD said PHAs would be sympathetic to such problems but stressed that the more notice and details that could be given, the more prepared the PHA will be thus minimising the risk of delay. Committee members appreciate the pragmatic approach being adopted by PHAs and requested that notice be given of any tightening of controls. If a catch certificate needs revalidating then the BIP will contact the relevant competent authority. The speed of clearance will depend on the answers being given and the confidence that the BIP has in the issuing state having the evidence to issue the catch certificate.
The general language of catch certificates is English. However as all the boxes are common, catch certificates issued in a foreign language can be cleared by comparing them with translated catch certificates. AM confirmed that Russian fish caught after 1 st Jan and until their competent authority is approved will not be allowed to be imported into the EU. He warned importers to be vigilant regarding when the fish was caught and suggested that voyage details be requested to ensure that the fish was not caught during this period. It was unanimously agreed that the implementation of the regulations had so far gone smoothly and that the next big test will be over the coming weeks when frozen 2010 fish starts to arrive. ML has been monitoring the impact of the regulations. ML asked whether the committee thought Seafish should publish the Guidelines for Third County Exporting Companies that had previously been circulated. Notwithstanding the opinion of Defra that Seafish should be very careful when considering this, the committee agreed the guidelines were clearly written and would be very useful to their suppliers and should therefore be published. Action Point ML to ensure the previously circulated guidelines to be published on the Seafish website. 5. Trade regulations burdens on international trade consultation feedback SB thanked everyone who had contributed to the consultation. He particularly thanked IB for his contribution to two consultations. Over five hundred individual issues had been raised and an action plan has been published by government and by SITPRO. See the following links: Government action plan: http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file53811.pdf SITPRO Action plan: http://www.sitpro.org.uk/regreview/keepinggoodsmoving.pdf The top issue identified is that of perceived inconsistencies in the application of regulations at borders. The perception of the trade was that the UK applies the letter of the law rather than the spirit as compared to other Member States. SB pointed out that the new Primary Authority regulations initiative could address some of these issues in the UK but agreed that it would not address the perceived problem in other Member States. The Government has established an International Trade Facilitation Committee (ITFC) which has high level government representation and a wide ranging trade facilitation remit. SITPRO acts as secretariat and is a
member of the committee. It was suggested that SB be invited to attend future Importers Committee meetings so that he can feed the Committee views into the ITFC. It was noted that Southampton PHA will now allow the re export of certain rejected consignments bringing it into line with other ports in the UK. Members of the committee expressed concern about the time taken to test some samples and the resulting additional costs incurred though demurrage charges. It was suggested that allowing consignments subject to such tests to be moved off the quayside under bondage would save considerable demurrage charges. Concern was expressed in the methodology of testing of prawns. The meat should be tested but in some cases the tests are conducted on flesh and shell which has ground up giving false positive results. It was suggested that the issue be bought to the attention of the Association of Public Analysts. Action Points ML and IB to survey importers to try to establish demurrage charges and inconsistencies in application of regulations. ML to contact Association of Public Analysts regarding testing procedures. 6. Seafish Advisory Committee Feedback BY confirmed that he and DG had attended the first meeting of the new Seafish Importers and Processors Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee is chaired by Ole Norgaard with Mike Parker being the Deputy Chair, both gentlemen being members of the Seafish Board. A second Advisory Committee addressing Domestic Catching and Processing has also been established and these committees replace the Shellfish, Whitefish, Pelagic and Sustainable Advisory Committees. The Importers and Processors Advisory Committee complements the Importers Committee as it is mainly concerned with Seafish strategic issues while the Importers Committee addresses issues that are important to members and their companies. BY concluded by saying that in his opinion the two committees will complement each other. DG agreed and said he is now in favour of Seafish and the levy as a means of paying for Seafish. 7. Seafish three year plan JH outlined the process that Seafish have undergone in developing the current three year plan. The consultation process started with a conference in September and has continued with face to face meetings through the latter part of 2009 and early 2010. The consultation has now finished and JH
confirmed that all work undertaken by Seafish will be under one of seven themes: Information, Safety, Environment, Regulation, Standards, Consumers and Health. The scope and main activities and deliverables of each theme were discussed at length in the two Advisory Committees in January and in some cases the Committees gave different advice. The results of these discussions are attached and will be put before the Seafish Board. The results of the consultation will be presented to the four devolved administrations who will be asked to sign off the three year plan. 8. Communications KG gave an overview of the effectiveness of the Seafish communications strategy. PS was impressed with the work being done particularly with regards the electronic communications. PS highlighted the NGO challenge with sensational headlines and claims. PS contended that Seafish should challenge damaging claims by NGOs and be more preemptive in dealing with NGOs. JH pointed out the work being done by the Seafish Common Language Group in which industry and NGOs get together to address issues with a view to arriving at common ground. Action Point Members should contact JH if they become aware of upcoming articles or stories. 9. Legislation update Third countries The Commission has published a new list of countries from which seafood can be imported. Canada, Greenland and the most of the USA are now approved for the export of live bivalve molluscs to the EU. Several countries, including 5 African countries, are now approved to export fishery products to the EU. The situation with Indonesia is to be discussed by the Commission s Steering Committee on 4-5 February. They are proposing to remove the current requirement for heavy metal testing. The Committee is also proposing to introduce a new requirement for 20% of consignments of Indonesian aquaculture product to be held at the border and tested for antibiotic residues. Thanks to DG Seafish were made aware of discussions in the Commission on introducing a ban on all Indian seafood. Seafish contacted the UK
Representation in Brussels, the FSA Imports Branch, the UKTI mission in India, MPEDA and others, encouraging these institutions to work towards avoiding the ban. Contaminants There are proposals to make minor changes to legislation covering the maximum allowed levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and cadmium. Discussions are ongoing in the European Commission and there is not yet any draft legislation. PCBs: With PCBs, new limits on non-dioxin-like PCBs are likely to be introduced. These are unlikely to cause any problems except with fish that is already close to the limit on dioxin PCBs. PAHs: New proposed limits for PAHs may cause problems to importers of traditionally smoked fish, especially those importing from countries whose smoked fish have had PAH alerts in the past. Cadmium: Some fish are having the limit on cadmium lowered from 0.1mg/kg to 0.05mg/kg. The fish involved include mackerel, horse mackerel and bonito. Limits on tuna, swordfish and anchovy remain unchanged, according to the most recent discussions. Veterinary residues While there have been some changes to veterinary residues legislation, these were only a reorganisation of the lists of residues, so that there is no actual change to requirements. 10. Any other business Those members who receive the Seafish Media Review and IUU e-alert find them very useful. BM would like glaze levels to be included on the agenda at the next meeting. RB provided the following link to an Australian report on glaze and net weight issues: http://www.consumer.gov.au/html/pdf/seafood_industry_ris.pdf DG urged that Tim Smith, CEO of the FSA be invited to the next meeting. Action Points KG to arrange for all members to be sent back dated IUU e-alerts and to ensure that all are included on the address lists for this and the media review. ML to invite Trading Standards to the next meeting to discuss glaze issues. ML to arrange an invitation to Tim Smith.
11. Date of Next Meeting The date and time of the next meeting was set for 10.30 on Thursday 13 th May at the Novotel, Euston Road, London.