Background Since 15 January 2022 businesses have needed to use the Animal Health Regulation (AHR) Export Health Certificates (EHCs) for goods exported from Great Britain (GB) to the EU or moved to Northern Ireland (NI) if an EHC is required. EHCs used by Authorised Traders to move prohibited and restricted (PandR) goods to NI have been unaffected by these changes.
The change came into effect for GB traders from 15 Jan 2022, having been delayed by the EU from August 2021. A small number of pre-AHR EHCs have been retained for use since 15 January 2022, where EU Border Control Posts (BCPs) were willing to accept them. This was in line with an EU request that Member States show flexibility and allow continued use of old pre-AHR EHCs.
What will change on 29 April 2022? The EU’s period of flexibility for the use of pre-Animal Health Regulation EHCs stops at the end of April 2022. EU Border Control posts will not be able to accept pre-AHR EHCs after this point. At 13.00, on Friday 29 April the remaining pre-AHR certificates will be withdrawn from EHC Online and traders will no longer be able to raise new applications for these EHCs. The affected EHCs cover raw milk and dairy products, poultry meat, meat preparations, meat products, hatching eggs and certain germinal products. Alternative EHCs are available for all these commodities.
The EU has provided Defra with updated EHCs for milk and dairy products. These are available on Form Finder and EHC Online. We are aware of some outstanding issues for exporters regarding the new EHCs, particularly for exporters of poultry meat. We will continue to pursue these issues and maintain dialogue with the Commission to find a resolution. For more information on the Animal Health Regulation, you should consult these Frequently Asked Questions. A separate Frequently Asked Questions document is available covering re-export issues.
New Dairy EHCs The updated EHCs for raw milk and dairy products amend the residency requirements for animals that have provided the milk, or milk within the product, that is being certified. The updated EHCs are simpler to certify. The updated EHCs are not yet formally part of EU law, however the European Commission have asked Member States to accept them before they become part of EU law. Defra have made these updated EHCs available for traders to use where EU Member States are willing to accept them.
These are EHCs 8467, 8468 and 8469.
Traders should check with their Border Control Posts that the updated milk and dairy product EHCs will be accepted before using them. For a short period of time, the updated milk and dairy product EHCs will be available in English only. This will be the case until the European Commission produce formal translations of the updated EHCs.
The pre-AHR EHCs for milk and dairy products (8283, 8284, 8285, 8286 and 8287) will no longer be available for new applications from 13.00pm on Friday 29th April 2022. For the time being, the AHR EHCs for milk and dairy products that have been available since January 2021 (8353, 8354 and 8356) will be available to use alongside the updated AHR EHCs. This will allow trade to continue to EU Member States that decide not to accept the updated EHCs before they enter into EU law, or who will not accept just English versions of the updated EHCs.
Contact details for enquiries please contact APHA at: exports@apha.gov.uk
Trader Readiness Team
GB to EU Exports
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
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