Thailand: new regulations that restrict imports of feed and feed ingredients

According to FAS-USDA, Thailand’s Department of Livestock Development (DLD), under the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC), has implemented several new regulations restricting imports of feed and feed ingredients containing certain animal proteins.

The new regulations are detailed under three different ministerial notifications:

• Rules, Procedures, and Conditions for the Importation for Sale of Specifically Controlled Animal Feed;
• Characteristics and Conditions for Prohibited Importation of Animal Feed with Avian Influenza Risk; and
• Characteristics and Conditions on Prohibited Importation for Animal Feed Ingredients that are at Risk of BSE Disease.

The DLD has issued several additional rules to accompany and implement these ministerial notifications but has not notified WTO for comments from its trading partners on these rule regulations. The effect of these notifications will be to limit the importation of feed and feed ingredients containing certain animal proteins to only from individual facilities in exporting countries that are first audited and approved by DLD. In addition, the new notifications would differentiate the import controls based on a country’s risk for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).