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Rules regarding the humble wooden pallet post-Brexit


From 1 January 2021, it will be a legal requirement for all wood packaging material moving between the UK and EU to be compliant with international phytosanitary standards


In recent weeks EU Exit has touched on a variety of issues, some of them highly political and controversial and others rather more mundane and thus largely overlooked. The humble wooden pallet fits into the latter category. It is cheap, robust, and without it transportation of cargo becomes more difficult and costly. From 1 January 2021, it will be a legal


requirement for all wood packaging material moving in both directions between the UK and EU to be compliant with a treatment and marked as specified in the International Standard for Phytosanitary measures No 15 (ISPM15). The question is, will there be enough of these pallets in existence to ensure that cargo can move? By law, all companies in the UK involved in


producing ISPM15 compliant wood packaging material must be authorised to do so by a valid certificate. Also, the regulations apply to timber sourced from all species of tree and used to manufacture solid wood packaging materials, although certain wood product types are exempt In order to help UK manufacturers and


exporters demonstrate compliance with ISPM15, October 2020


the Forestry Commission in Britain and the Forest Service, an agency within the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland, established a national wood packaging material marking programme in conjunction with the trade.


Marking programme The UK wood packaging material marking programme (UKWPMMP) regulates the manufacture, repair and re-manufacture of ISPM15 compliant WPM in the UK and is administered by the Timber Packaging and Pallet Confederation (TIMCON). In summary, for wooden packaging to comply


with ISPM15 it must: • Meet the ISPM15 bark tolerance requirements; • Have been subjected to an ISPM15 approved treatment by an appropriately certified treatment provider or manufacturer and have been marked appropriately. The two primary approved treatments are either heat treatment or fumigation. Regarding the marking of the wood,


go to the TIMCON website at www.timcon.org/ISPM15/ApplicationPack/ and download its pdf document Guide to the ISPM15 Mark – The Model Mark. TIMCON has highlighted measures being


taken to boost the UK’s production capacity to manufacture wooden pallets. These measures include: • Manufacturers increasing their heat-treating capacities with new investment in equipment;


• Increasing the capacity of current equipment – moving to 24/7 shift patterns, for example, which in many cases more than doubles capacity without major investment;


• In Wales, a scheme has been set up for small- and medium-sized business to seek grants to invest in increasing heat-treatment equipment;


• Work has been carried out in conjunction with the Forestry Commission, the UK Wood Packaging Material Marking Programme Advisory Council, TIMCON and the major pooling companies, allowing the use of heat- treated repair boards.


This is the sort of issue that could be


overlooked, but is easy for enforcement agencies to check and for any non-compliance to be identified and penalised. If Members are handling traffic for traders whose only trade is with the EU, it would in all probability be advisable to remind them of ISPM requirements.


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