28 WESTERN PALLET
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26 WESTERN PALLET
CJ SHEERAN has for months been raising awareness on the vast impact a 'No Deal Brexit' will have on every business in Ireland that exports to and imports from or via the UK using wooden packaging and pallets. The UK Government has taken note of the widespread scope of this potential upheaval with the recent publication by DEFRA (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) of a set of Technical Notes on the impact of a 'No Deal Brexit' and their Guidance Note entitled "Importing and exporting plants and plant products if there's no Brexit deal".
On March 29, 2019, the UK will become a Third Country. The EU requires that all imports from third countries that have wooden packaging material (WPM) must conform to the requirements of ISPM15 - the International Standard for Phytosanitary Materials. This is an international standard under the International Plant Protection Convention that countries must apply to reduce the risk of the introduction and spread of certain pests. ISPM15 requires WPM to be treated (typically using heat-treatment) and marked. WPM includes pallets, cases, crates, boxes, cable drums, spools and dunnage.
As indicated in the EU's technical notice on the topic, in the event of no deal, all WPM moving between the EU and the UK would need to be ISPM15 compliant. "This will impact all businesses in Ireland that use timber packaging and pallets for imports from and exports to the UK and also those using the UK as a landbridge to the continent", says Ashleigh Doyle, Compliance Director at CJS. "The seriousness of this issue cannot be underestimated". On the import front, 850,000 trailers and containers come into Dublin Port every year from the UK.
With the vast majority of their contents palletized, this means that in the event of a no deal Brexit, all of these pallets will have to be heat-treated in compliance with ISPM15. If they are not, they cannot be permitted to enter Ireland. The same applies to exports.
CJ Sheeran's Directors have recently met with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) to discuss ISPM15 and Brexit and to outline the urgency of the need to ensure that everyone is prepared for all eventualities and to keep customers and the industry up-to-date on developments. With the recent installation of additional kilns, CJS have significantly increased ISPM15 heat-treatment and kiln drying capacity to what is now the largest capacity in Ireland and the UK. "They said Brexit wouldn't happen, they said Trump wouldn't get elected, they said Slieve Bloom wouldn't win the hurling county final - but they all did", says Mark Sheeran, MD of CJS. "We're ready".
Impact of Brexit on Timber Packaging & Pallets
Leading Irish pallet producer discusses the pallet impact of a "No Deal Brexit"
(Reprinted with permission from the CJ SHEERAN newsletter)