The Timber Packaging & Pallet Confederation (TIMCON) has written to the UK Government calling for the UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement to be used as an opportunity to reduce the burden of unnecessary regulations on the pallet and timber packaging industry.
TIMCON made its request in a letter to DEFRA, following its submission to the consultation process on the proposed agreement between the UK and EU – which aims to reduce the number of border checks, certification requirements, and admin that currently apply. The organisation highlighted the significant costs incurred by the industry since Brexit to comply with ISPM15 requirements controlling the movement of wooden pallets and packaging between the UK and EU.
TIMCON said its members have invested heavily to be able to meet ISPM15 requirements since leaving the EU to maintain the flow of trade, and have also faced ongoing compliance, energy, transport and fuel costs.
“While many of these costs were inevitably passed on to customers, our industry has also had to bear these costs year after year as operational necessities since the UK became a third country,” said TIMCON Secretary General Stuart Hex in the letter.
He added that TIMCON supports a shared UK/EU system on food safety, animal health and plant health rules, with special dispensation, exemption, or complete removal of ISPM15 requirements for pallets and timber packaging moving between the two areas. This “would reduce business costs and cut red tape for our members and the wider timber packaging manufacturing, logistics, and transportation industry,” he said, and “reduce the cost to customers and end users of pallets from all sectors (not just agri-food) shipping their products into the EU; speeding up the flow of these UK goods and making them more competitive”.
Hex added that the government should continue progressing the negotiations despite the imminent party leadership contest, to bring the benefits of reduced costs and bureaucracy to pallets and packaging and other supply chain business as soon as possible.
TIMCON will update its membership on the SPS Agreement consultation and other industry developments at the organisation’s AGM, which will take place at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Edinburgh on September 10th.
The event will be followed by a dinner at Edinburgh Castle, where the winners of the first ever TIMCON awards will be announced.
The awards were launched in June to recognise excellence in the pallet and timber packaging industry in the following categories: Customer Service; Sustainability; Health & Safety; Innovation; and Rising Star.
