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Clearance of Goods at the Border

The ACVM Group is refining procedures for clearance of imported goods at the border following a series of workshops held in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch with attendees from the agricultural chemicals and veterinary medicines industries, freight agencies and staff of MAF Quarantine Services.

The workshops were held to present the proposed changes that are being implemented under the Animal Remedies and Pesticides Acts during the run up to the implementation of the new legislation, to introduce revised documentation that will be provided by importers and MAF that will simplify clearance of goods, and to receive comments from the participants. The revisions proposed will enable commercial importations and importations by individuals as passengers arriving at the border to be dealt with efficiently by MAF Quarantine Services staff and the ACVM Group. Key aspects of the new clearance process are outlined below.

Legislation and parallel importing
The revised clearance procedures for goods are being introduced under the Animal Remedies and Pesticides Acts, which will remain in force until implementation of the ACVM Act. Under the Animal Remedies Act, importation of a licensed animal remedy is permitted only by the licensee. Similarly under the Pesticides Act, the importation of a registered pesticide is limited to the registrant, with the exception that a permit for ‘importation for own use’ may be granted to an applicant who is not the registrant, but only for the same product that has been registered in New Zealand. No changes to this position are proposed in the revised procedures.

Classification of goods for the purpose of clearance
For the purpose of the revised procedures, the ACVM Group has divided goods that arrive at the border into four groups:

• registered products;
• unregistered products;
• unfinished products that are registered in New Zealand;
• ingredients.

The shipping documentation of all incoming goods is checked by MAF Quarantine Services staff against the database of registered products provided by the ACVM Group. Initial screening is supplemented by direct inspection of goods if necessary. It should be noted that ingredients (see below) will not be subject to clearance at the border and MAF Quarantine Services staff will be requested to provide immediate clearance (subject to any biosecurity approvals that may be required).

Registered products
Registered products are licensed animal remedies and registered pesticides that are imported fully finished and ready in all respects, including being labelled with approved labels, for supply to the market. Proprietors should ensure that the accompanying shipping documents contain the full trade name and the Animal Remedies Board or Pesticides Board number. MAF Quarantine Services staff will interrogate the database to confirm the registered status of the product and provide immediate clearance to the proprietor or authorised agent. No animal remedy or pesticide import approval is required for clearance of registered products.

Unregistered products
Unregistered products that are imported will be held at the border for reshipping or destruction at the importer’s expense. Under specific circumstances the importation of an unregistered animal remedy will be permitted following the receipt of an import approval from the ACVM Group. These specific circumstances, which cover importation for special uses, are described below under ‘Import approvals’. Unregistered products will not be cleared at the border unless covered by an animal remedy or pesticide import approval for special use.

Unfinished registered products
These products are defined to include any formulations, bulk products, unlabelled products and products that are labelled with foreign labels that need to be relabelled to complete them for sale as registered products in New Zealand. Products in this category share the characteristic that they need one or more manufacturing steps to finish them for the market. The shipping documentation for an unfinished registered product will be checked with the data base by MAF Quarantine Services staff to confirm that the product, when finished, is a registered product in New Zealand. These products will be cleared by MAF Quarantine Services to a specific site, on provision of an import approval from the ACVM Group with the shipping documentation or after arrival by an agent. Licensees and registrants that are routinely importing unfinished products to finish them in New Zealand should apply to the ACVM Group for an import approval that will cover repeated importations, provided the details are not changed. An animal remedy or pesticide import approval is required for clearance of unfinished registered products.

Ingredients
Ingredients are regarded as any components of animal remedies or pesticides. MAF Quarantine Services staff will clear on arrival (subject to any biosecurity approvals that may be required) any chemical, active ingredient, raw material or other ingredient of an animal remedy or pesticide. No animal remedy or pesticide import approval is required for clearance of ingredients.

Import approvals
An animal remedy import approval or a pesticide import approval must be applied for when the imported product does not meet all the conditions of the licence or registration, or the importation is being sought for a special use. The circumstances when an import approval will be required are:

• the product is unfinished and requires one or more manufacturing steps to complete the product for sale in New Zealand;
• the product is accompanying an animal and is required for the treatment of the animal;
• the product is required for the treatment of animals or plants held in quarantine;
• the product is an animal remedy or pesticide that is being imported only to be exported and is not for domestic sale;
• the product is required for the treatment of animals in containment (e.g. zoos);
• the product is required for research that does not entail development of the product for which the application is sought;
• the product is required by a New Zealand registered veterinarian for the treatment of an animal on welfare grounds.

In all cases goods will be redirected to a specific site and person. In situations where routine importations of unfinished registered products are occurring, the licensee or registrant is required to apply for an import approval that may be used for all future occasions provided the details of the products are not changed. Any number of products may be applied for under one import approval provided they come from the same source and are required to be diverted to the same destination for finishing. In future when an Animal Remedies Board licence or Pesticides Board registration is approved for an unfinished product, the ACVM Group will issue an import approval at the same time to facilitate access.

An import approval will be provided to advise MAF Quarantine Services staff to divert the unfinished registered product to a specific person or organisation at a specific site. These specific sites will be called ‘approved premises’.

Approved premises
Approved premises are those locations specified in an import approval to which a product that is not cleared at the border will be diverted by MAF Quarantine Services staff. For example, if the product is an unfinished registered product the premises will be those of an approved manufacturer covered by the inspection programme for good manufacturing practice (GMP). Most manufacturers of animal remedies are already approved as part of the formal GMP programme. In the future, formulators of pesticides will also have to have their sites approved.

Import approvals for special uses will specify the name of the person or organisation and the precise location to which the product will be diverted. Research organisations will be required to operate to a code of practice for the control of use and the control of disposal of the product and produce arising from receiving diverted products. Premises that receive diverted products that have been imported only for export will be subject to an ACVM standard and will be inspected for compliance. These premises may also be approved transitional facilities under the Biosecurity Act 1993 when they will be deemed to comply also with the ACVM standard.