In follow up to our Member Alert on EU certification on October 19, USDEC has learned that the European Commission will only accept comments directly from foreign governments. Therefore, any importers that wish to submit the letter that USDEC has drafted must send comments through the EU's Have Your Say portal. This portal is open to comments from the public. Comments are due November 3, Brussels time. All comments submitted through the Have Your Say portal will be available to the public.

Please reach out to Sandra Benson at sbenson@usdec.org or Bryan Jacoby at bjacoby@usdec.org with any questions.

European Union Proposes New Dairy Certificates, October 19, 2020

Through WTO notification G/SPS/N/EU/401, the European Union (EU) has published draft certificates for dairy and composite products that are potentially problematic.

The draft regulation and proposed model certificates are available here. (Please note that the NT certificate in Chapter 35 replaces the HTB certificate now used for pasteurized dairy products for human consumption. The ST certificate in Chapter 36 is for countries at risk of foot and mouth disease so will not be issued for the U.S. at this time.)

USDEC is reaching out to members now to ask for you to engage your importers and ask for their participation in the public comment period which ends October 26, 2020 through the WTO process, and November 3, 2020 through the EU's online portal. We have included a sample letter that importers may submit towards the bottom of this Member Alert.

USDEC is working with the U.S. government (USG) on these new draft EU certificates, yet given the wide-spread use of EU dairy certificates by our industry and the intransigence typically shown by EU officials on trade concerns, we are urging member action as well.

Key Concerns:

• In addition to traceability information requirements, the proposals contain new attestations for public and animal health that are different from the certificates now in use. In particular, the animal health section of the dairy, colostrum, and composite certificates includes new language that goes beyond the requirement for the exporting country's government to certify to the absence of regulated diseases and demands that the exporting country attest to implementing specific regulatory controls, some of which do not appear to fully align with the U.S. animal system.
• Additionally, the EU is proposing that these new animal health statements be incorporated into the dairy transit certificates. Therefore, the implications of this new language could extend beyond goods entering the EU and may also impact goods transiting the EU en route to a third country (i.e. Morocco) or to U.S. military bases in the EU.
• EU certification regulations also impact certain U.S. exports to countries such as New Zealand and Canada that use U.S. dairy ingredients as inputs into final products ultimately exported to the EU and as such require the EU certificate to be provided for the U.S. export.

Requested Action:

• We are reaching out to you now to request that you engage your importers and ask for their participation in the public comment period which ends October 26, 2020.
  
  Please share this letter with your importers and encourage them by October 26 to the European Commission at sps@ec.europa.eu.
  
  USDEC is filing comments directly with the EU and we expect the U.S. government (USG) to do so as well with the goal of keeping trade open. That said, we believe that EU stakeholder voices are key to helping impress upon the EU the importance of flexibility and working with trading partners to address concerns with these certificates.
  
  
• There is also now a comment period underway on the Have Your Say website through November 3. Commenting on this platform is another alternative to submitting to the WTO notification, but keep in mind that all comments posted on the Have Your Say portal are published online and available to the public.

For more information on the proposal, the draft regulation is available here.

The draft model certificates are available here:

• Chapter 35: heat-treated dairy from countries free from foot and mouth disease
• Chapter 34: raw milk cheese certificate
• Chapter 37: colostrum certificate
• Chapter 38: colostrum products certificate
• Transit certificates for each of the above certificates will be the listed certificate with only the animal health provisions
• Chapter 50: composite health certificate
• Chapter 52: composite transit certificate

Please contact Bryan Jacoby at bjacoby@usdec.org or Sandra Benson at sbenson@usdec.org with any questions.