The NPA has urged Defra to clarify the UK government’s approach to African swine fever (ASF) regionalisation agreements, after Spain highlighted the benefits of having arrangements in place prior to outbreaks.
Spain’s ASF outbreak, confirmed in wild boar near Barcelona on November 28, has highlighted a number of issues relevant to the UK, in the context of ongoing efforts to prevent and prepare for an outbreak.
Regionalisation
One of the big concerns discussed at the latest NPA Pig Industry Group meeting last week was the UK government’s seeming lack of a clear position on regionalisation.
This is in stark contrast to Spain, which was able to rapidly implement agreements already in place as part of the EU and, crucially, with China, with whic Spain had only just made a regionalisation agreement ‘in principle’, prior to the outbreak.
The UK also rapidly put in place regionalisation arrangements in relation to Spanish pork imports, along with a number of other countries. These agreements are enabling Spain trade to continue from outside specified restricted areas, reducing the economic damage of the ASF outbreak.
NPA chief executive Lizzie Wilson said the UK’s arrangements with the EU are not set in stone. During its latest regular meeting with Defra, the NPA raised the issue of the speed with which Spain put its regionalisation agreements in place and pressed for more clarity on the UK’s position.
“We submitted a raft of questions on ASF and regionalisation,” Lizzie said. “Spain has shown what is possible. It was almost overnight. They are a huge exporter and very reliant on their export markets, so they made sure they had all their ducks in a row.”
Defra has, in the past, only provided assurances about regionalisation being ‘enshrined in principle’ in the UK’s trade agreement with the EU.
“But there are no guarantees,” Lizzie added. “So, we have put all those queries into Defra and will wait to see what comes back. The sudden arrival of ASF in Spain is another reminder of the urgency of this issue. We cannot be scrambling around trying to arrange regionalisation agreements once ASF strikes. We need certainty now.”
Marcus Bates, who is heavily involved in the UK pork trade as a member of the UK Export Certification Partnership, agreed that the Spanish situation ‘just emphasises the importance of getting regionalisation for ourselves’.
He noted that, while Defra has been talking about regionalisation agreements with China for some time, nothing concrete has happened.
“The fact that Spain have a regionalisation agreement for China seems like an opportunity for us to really push this up the agenda,” he told PIG.
“The figures I’ve seen suggest that China represents 20% of Spain’s exports, but it’s 40% of ours so the impact of losing the Chinese market for the UK would be devastating.
“If the Spanish can do it, so can we. How stupid would we look if we get ASF and we haven’t even started to talk to China about it?”
He said the issue should be ‘top of the agenda’ in diplomatic discussions between the UK and Chinese governments over the next year.
He added that there was some good news, however, in that the UK is ‘engaging very positively’ on a regionalisation agreement with the Philippines, our second biggest third country market for pork.
Defra response
Defra pointed out that the UK has an ASF regionalisation framework in place with EU countries through the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
For non-EU trade partners, such as China, it said certain Export Health Certificates can still be signed if the products come from ASF-free zones established in accordance with World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) standards.
The Department stressed that, in the event of an ASF outbreak, it will work to ensure that trade in affected commodities can continue from free zones ‘as much as possible’. Discussions for formal ASF regionalisation agreements have been initiated with key trade partners for pork products, including The Philippines and China, it added.