The Food Safety (Fishery Products and Live Shellfish) (Hygiene) Regulations 1998

Additional conditions relating to certain third country imports of fishery products

43.—(1) Subject to paragraph (4) and regulation 46, no person shall import any fishery products which are for human consumption—

(a) from a third country;

(b) from another country or territory within the European Community if those fishery products do not originate from within the European Economic Area(1), except where those products were in free circulation in that country or territory within the European Community;

(c) from an EEA State which is not also a member State of the European Community, except where those fishery products originate from within the European Economic Area,

unless the conditions specified in paragraph (2) or alternatively, if those fishery products originate in a country in respect of which the European Commission has adopted approved import conditions for fishery products and those fishery products fall within the scope of those approved import conditions, paragraph (3) are satisfied in relation to those fishery products which he imports.

(2) The conditions in paragraph (2) referred to in paragraph (1) are that the fishery products—

(a) if dispatched to Great Britain from their country of origin—

(i) before 22nd April 1998—

(aa) have their country of origin shown clearly on their labelling, and

(bb) are only to be marketed in the British Islands or in an EEA State other than the United Kingdom according to the derogation mentioned in article 3.2 of Commission Decision 97/296/EC(2) drawing up the list of third countries from which the import of fishery products is authorised for human consumption,

(ii) on or after 22nd April 1998, originate in one of the third countries listed in Part II of the Annex to Commission Decision 97/296/EC;

(b) come from an approved establishment or vessel inspected by a competent authority of the State of origin of those products;

(c) comprise or are part of a consignment which is accompanied by a numbered, original, duly completed health certificate which—

(i) comprises a single sheet of paper,

(ii) is drawn up in English and, if necessary, in an official language of the country or territory for which those fishery products are destined,

(iii) contains the information mentioned in the specimen health certificate set out in the Annex to Commission Decision 95/328 EC(3) of 25th July 1995 establishing health certification for fishery products from third countries which are not yet covered by a specific decision, and

(iv) contains the health attestation mentioned in that specimen health certificate, duly signed and dated by an official inspector duly appointed by the competent authority of the State of origin of those products; and

(d) if they are or include processed shellfish, the processed shellfish (or parts thereof) originate in one of the third countries listed in the Annex to Commission Decision 97/20/EC establishing the list of third countries fulfilling the equivalence conditions for the production and placing on the market of bivalve molluscs, echinoderms, tunicates and marine gastropods(4), but this paragraph shall not apply to adductor muscles, completely separated from viscera and gonads, of wild pectinidae.

(3) The conditions in paragraph (3) referred to in paragraph (1) are that a person importing fishery products in circumstances where those products—

(a) originate in a third country in respect of which the European Commission has adopted approved import conditions for fishery products; and

(b) fall within the scope of those approved import conditions,

shall import those products in accordance with those approved import conditions.

(4) Fishery products which—

(a) originate in a third country;

(b) were caught in their natural environment; and

(c) have not or had not been on land prior to their importation into the European Community,

need not be accompanied by any health certificate which would otherwise be required under paragraph (2) or (3).

(5) In paragraph (1) 22nd April 1998 means the date on which the derogation mentioned in article 3.2 of Commission Decision 97/296/EC comes to an end or, if that date is deferred, the deferred date.

(1)

See protocol 4 (on rules of origin) annexed to the EEA Agreement, as amended by the Decision of the EEA Joint Committee No. 6/94 amending protocol 4 to the EEA Agreement (OJ No. L95, 14.4.94, p.22).

(2)

OJ No. L122, 14.5.97, p.21.

(3)

OJ No. L191, 12.8.95, p.32.

(4)

OJ No. L6, 10.1.97, p.46.