Reply With QuoteThat’s quite surprising. Hopefully sandwich sales in the Netherlands will benefit ;)
A lot of comments here on the new rules for UK citizens to enter The Netherlands. When Brits enter our country, they're not allowed to have sandwiches in their possession! All is taken away and dumped by Dutch Customs. This is the result of Brexit. The uproar and comments are 'petty' and '... 'isn't there something else to check these days? (Referring to the mutated Covid virus). The public opinion is not in favour of Customs.
Anyway, be warned. Eat your sardines before you enter my country. I suppose they will not pry it out of your mouth.
M
That’s quite surprising. Hopefully sandwich sales in the Netherlands will benefit ;)
It's just a matter of time...
As I understood it, it wasn't the sandwich but the filling that was the issue - the rule concerns the 'importation' of meat and dairy products; the offending comestible was the ham.
I don't find this surprising, surely it's always been the case that you can't take certain foods from a non-EU country into an EU country (e.g. meat, dairy).
And the butter/cheeseOriginally Posted by SimonK
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My French colleague planned to smuggle some cheese back - hopefully the cheese police won't catch him at the border :D
Dutch customs don't want to open a sandwich to check what's on it, so you can toss them away. All of them, even with peanut butter or jam. Apparently, The suggestion to throw away the ham or cheese and keep the bread isn't working either.
It’s a problem
A plentiful supply of dirty old sports socks could be the answer
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We can bring 20kg of fish or fish product into the EU.
Need any soused herring? Must be in short supply in The Netherlands now we have taken back control of our fisheries.
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How about SPAM? It’s made in the EU (Denmark).
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It is expected...I just hope it's reciprocated.
Like there are no ham/cheese baguettes or sandwich items available in Europe!
Although do they want to encourage even Covid tested lorry drivers to make additional stops & interactions with the public ?
It's likely to cause problems for expats - friends and family will have to become smugglers.
There are quite a few companies that supply expats with their uk products, but usually at 3 times the uk price (local guy wants 3e for a pack of crumpets - 25p in Tesco's !). Presumably they will be still be allowed to import the products, but it will now be 4 or 5 times the price .
Am I allowed to bring roasted coffee beans back to UK?
Only if they originated in the UK lol
It's just a matter of time...
Tit for tat won’t help.
I find it slightly strange the concept that on 31 Dec it was deemed ok to bring a sandwich across a border between two equally developed countries yet 24 hours later its a big issue. I know rules are rules and we aren't in the EU any more, but couldn't rules like that not have been sensibly negotiated or ignored completely? What is the reason food has to be chucked out...economic or safety?
1. GOV.U.K.
What you can bring from EU countries
You can bring:
meat
dairy
other animal products, for example, fish, eggs and honey
2. GOVERNMENT.NL
Bringing food products into the Netherlands from the UK
You cannot bring meat, fish or dairy products with you from the UK to the Netherlands
3. EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Travellers are not allowed to bring in meat, milk or their products
For fishery products, travellers are allowed to bring in up to 20 kilograms or the weight of one fish if this is higher.
Clear?
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Or most borders in fact.
Entering USA or crossing from Mexico or Canada you are always asked if you have certain foodstuffs.
Our Weetabix and PG Tips are fine though.
Cheers,
Neil.
Would you mind posting the link for this please? my Google-fu failed me.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
It's not tit for tat, it would be about being consistent.
If we wanted to be consistent we might as well have remained in the EU.
We’ve taken back control, let dour Dutch functionaries confiscate our travellers’ ham and cheese butties, whilst our own welcoming customs officers wave arriving Dutch lorry drivers and tourists on their way with a happy smile and cheery ‘eet smakelijk’ as they tuck into their delicious packed lunches lovingly prepared back home with such care by their cherished ones for the long road ahead.
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Last edited by BillyCasper; 13th January 2021 at 18:19.
But that wouldn't have been consistent with the wishes of the majority of the eligible to vote population
Talking of lorry drivers, lets hope we now get more strict on the continental hgv drivers being held accountable for flouting our highway code rules and regulations :)
Utterly pathetic. People are reverting to behaviour last seen in bad 1970s sitcoms when it was considered “funny” to take the piss out of “foreigners”.
I’ve just had a phone call with the guy whose business I’ve used for several years for shipping stuff from London to Malta. A big part of his business was shipping boxes of products not readily found in local supermarkets. To continue this he would now need a separate customs declaration for every single item in the shopping basket. A business model catering to a clear demand and representing a significant percentage of his revenue stream has been completely torpedoed.
I cannot bring in my own home produced honey from UK to EU then?
It's ok I've found it - apparently these rules are all to do with stopping the spread of Foot and Mouth Disease since 2001 and applies for personal goods into the EU from outside - so impacts us since we are now outside the EU.
* For other animal products, such as honey, live oysters, live mussels and snails for example, travellers are allowed to bring in up to 2 kilograms
Goodness how honey or live oysters can spread Foot and Mouth disease! Something to do with the lack of feet - I guess that's why fish are ok as well?
Note:
These rules do not apply to animal products transported between the EU Member States, or for animal products coming from Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, San Marino or Switzerland.
I will try not to make comment onto why UK could not be have been tagged to that list - in negotiations.
https://ec.europa.eu/food/animals/an...nal_imports_en
Last edited by MartynJC (UK); 13th January 2021 at 18:47.
I only posted a snapshot. Partly to ridicule.
2020 and before, we didn't have to concern ourselves with this king of trivia. 2021 and beyond it looks like we have to have some awareness of arcane import and export regulations, VAT and other such tedious nonsense. I might have to gen up on Incoterms 2020, the last version I touched was Incoterms 2000.
Back to honey, I reckon:
EU to UK: Fill your boots
UK to EU: 2kg
It's funny because I read it differently, with "their" applying not to the travellers but to the 2 named substances, as in you cannot bring meat or meat products, milk or milk products.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Guys, I only posted this as warning and as an example of Dutch bureaucracy when custom officers check passengers for sandwiches and there's no test for Covid... Hence, the G&D posting. But we must stay aware of the content - or perhaps it's best to transfer it to the BP!
M
I don't think it's out of place Menno, and I don't see it as an example of Dutch bureaucracy. The (EU) rules were not changed because of Brexit: they were already in place for third countries. What changed is that the UK became a third country.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Leaving aside the politics, I for one found it funny. Rules or not, there are jobsworths everywhere. Best not to get too riled either way.
EFA
The people who will become justifiably riled are those who don’t confine themselves to living under one particular stone in one particular field.
I’ll say no more as it’s not the BP, save that this isn’t a personal dig at the poster I quoted.
Fair enough, not taken personally at all by me. I was laughing at Menno’s story while appreciating the heads up. I wouldn’t joke about Brexit, far too serious and as you and others have said, rightly in the BP.
I chuckle as it’s the only way I’ve stayed sane dealing with border/customs people over the years. The French who held up 1000s of us coming back from Le Mans for 4 hours; the British who searched my people carrier with my young family heading off into the Eurotunnel for an hour; the Israelis who thought I should talk to two Mossad officers for two hours. Let’s not get started on the US. I know they all have a job to do but I find the psychology amusing and getting cross never helps as they hold all the cards.
I discovered many years ago that the quickest way to clear customs into Australia was to go through the Red Channel and declare a packet of mints as foodstuff, which the officials would smile about and quickly declare as acceptable before waving you on your way. The queue at Green was usually horrendous.
I also always arrived in New Zealand with a bit of mud on my boots just to have them thoroughly cleaned by the biosecurity officials
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
Anybody who creates issues going through customs deserves the fallout of the issues they have personally created.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Custom officers... I used to have a small company. My colleague and I were responsible for the verbal en written communications training of new custom officers (a big contract with Customs - that now pays my retirement!). Anyway, I've learned a lot in those years about how to deal with custom officers. Downside was that every time I arrived at Schiphol, I was picked out by my former students for inspection.
Years ago, we landed in Atlanta with our (then young) sons. One had been sick on the plane, he cannot stand flying. He was constantly throwing up, so my wife and he stayed out of the queue, where my oldest were in the queue. A TSA officer approached my wife why she wasn't line. She explained why (and being Canadian, she doesn't sound like a tourist...). The officer turned away and walked up to the queue, pointed at us. All people in front of us stepped back and there was a 'corridor' with tons of eyes upon us. We were ordered to step out of the queue. When we were out of the queue, we were escorted to the diplomatic 'entrance' and after receiving 4 stamps, waved through. Entering the US within minutes. The difference between the officer's attitude when he pointed at us and the moment we were escorted to the diplomatic entrance was remarkable. From surly to very empathetic.
This.
I doubt there's any country that doesn't have rules on what can be carried in and out by travellers. SWMBO fell foul of one such rule bringing a bunch of flowers back (from Turkey) as did I with a wooden carving (from The Maldives).
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Adopts shouty pretend Scots accent a la Mel Gibson in Braveheart ,
'They can take our ham and cheese sarnies but they'll niver take our freedumbs'
You are an expert! Sounds like an interesting piece of work. Maybe you can teach us ‘my sandwiches don’t contain any animal products’ in Dutch, with the right intonation :)
To be fair, I think US immigration has improved a lot in the last 30 years. I must have been 100 times during that period. In recent years most of the officers have been perfectly pleasant and the automated systems have helped a lot as well. I’d say the UK has deteriorated a bit.
A detail: here in The Netherlands, about 50% of the custom staff during a shift is in plain cloths and mingles among the arriving passengers. All they do is observing. The custom officer will contact the desk when a passenger 'ticks a few boxes' criteria-wise, then that passenger is taken out of the queue. The number of criteria is unknown to me and never shared with me. All I know is that every day a different set of 4 or 5 points is observed and marked for being checked at the desk. This observation is one of the reasons why we all think "Why do we have to walk this enormous distance to the luggage conveyor belt, isn't there a shortcut?" There are shortcuts. It would be interesting to hear from people if they've noticed that the walking distance is now different (longer) than before Brexit.
So it has no effect when you walk from the plane to the customs desk and you're trying to hide sandwiches. You've already been spotted. Best is to toss some stuff into the bin when leaving the plane and hope that the observant thinks that you've tossed everything away.
Interesting, thanks. I knew a lot of customs work is intelligence based. I guess we should be glad of the job they do, if not all the consequences.
Would I be ok if I had Edam sarnies?
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That's it, I'm boycotting stroopwafels.
Geen boterhammen aub.
David
Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations
That sandwich is perhaps a disadvantage, but here's an advantage: speeding tickets on the continent: https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/consum...nes-due-brexit
Or better: "Ik heb mijn brood net op!" (I just finished eating my sandwiches!)Geen boterhammen aub.
Well, they've become lockdown's favorite comfort food overhere. They are everywhere. And easy to obtain. I spoke to this guy who's a supervisor in a stroopwafel factory. A million every day and production is up! (over 90% goes to China).That's it, I'm boycotting stroopwafels.
Menno
Last edited by thieuster; 15th January 2021 at 08:01.
Stroopwafels are food of the gods. Impossible to just eat one
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Which none are those, DVSA pull them all the time as it’s easy money now they are self funding. With the new tacho heads they can read the data as they drive behind you, add to that there’s weigh points on the major trunk roads that can weigh the wagons and pull them for exceeding axel loads there’s not as many rule breakers as you might think. The foreigners have better porn on there screens when pass as them in the night.
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Don't remember personal food being an issue back in the day (pre EU and EC - possibly even pre EEC).
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