International Trading Rules?

This is something that crops up quite often in this forum so I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile several of us finding out and posting up the current rules for our respective countries, perhaps with a list of which plants are prohibited and restricted from certain countries?

Edited to add, we could post the government plant health website URLs rather than writing it out, to include import/export conditions and the lists of the plants restricted/prohibited.

This message was edited Oct 30, 2004 8:03 PM

What a really good idea Baa. I have to use my hubby as courier with my mail to the post office, and he hates it, he HATES it with a vengance!!.....He says that he always has interrogations as to contents of envelopes, then told they shouldn't be posted(seeds)
I keep telling him that it's legal in the European community, but he says that the people in the post office says it isn't.
I need something, that I can print out , to show him, and that he can take to show them in the Post office.
I did try to pull up something official, but no luck, guess I was looking in the wrong place.
But it would help if we had clear cut cans /can't for different countries.

I had that from a post office too, you're right, within the EU apart from a few restricted/prohibited (each country has it's own lists) you can send seeds and plants with no problem. Mind you the PO I use now wasn't overly friendly to begin with and I had to complain to HQ but they've got used to me now and even filled in a customs form both they and I had forgotten to fill in for cosmetics which was good of them.

Here's the site from DEFRA regarding import/export of plant material, you'll need adobe acrobat but if you lick on the links on the left hand side, all the info you need is there in pdf files.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/planth/impexp.htm

thanks Baa, I've printed off the relevent bits, for hi, to read, and to take to the p.o. if necessary. I'm sure he'll still dispute it !!...:-)

I tried reading it. but my brain does not function too well at the mo.

Am I right in reading it that you are o.k. if you are an amateur exchanging plants/seeds for your own use. And that that applies to all E.U. countries? They dress it up in all sorts of gobbldy-gook, that it's not always as it seems.

From what I read Sueone, seeds and plants within the EU can be exchanged freely (with the occasional exception such as we cannot send beetroot out of the UK in plant or seed form) and seeds are still free from phytosanitary certs (with the exception of the restricted/forbidden to import into the UK) from anywhere.


The Civil Service made a big thing about writing in plain English, LOL it's still ambiguous gobbledy-gook

Maybe these can be of use to you guys?

EPPO Summaries - http://www.eppo.org/cgi-bin/search.cgi?rule=any&target=summaries

thanks for that, when I can decipher it, I think they make these rulings written in so much gobbly-gook deliberately, so that there is uncertainty.

I think you're absolutely right :-)