European Union (EU) Member States voted Monday August 9, 2021, to extend the transition related deadlines for its new dairy and composite certificates. This extension will officially take effect August 12, 2021, the day after it is posted in the EU's official journal. As a result, the EU will be permitting the use of all current dairy and composite certificates through March 15, 2022, so long as they were issued prior to January 15, 2022.

This good news builds upon the positive development shared in our previous Member Alert confirming that USDA would be establishing new verification procedures to comply with the new EU certificates' requirements, for which the new steps will not impose additional burdens on dairy farmers or processors.

This extension will allow the U.S. government to ensure that the AMS Dairy Program will have its new electronic Agriculture Trade Licensing & Attestation Solution (ATLAS) system ready to be used by exporters to complete the EU's new certificates by the time they are required on January 15, 2021.

Please contact Bryan Jacoby at bjacoby@usdec.org with any technical questions on the EU certificates and refer to Volume 2 of the USDEC Export Guide for additional details.