UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – UAE officials indicate that they will approach approved foreign Halal certifiers directly in an
effort to identify slaughter houses that produce meat for export to the UAE for the purpose of
collecting annual Halal fees.
The UAE announced that it
would begin to collect fees from Halal certifiers and foreign slaughter
plants that produce meat for export nearly 18 months ago.
The UAE General Secretariat of Municipalities (GSM) has indicated that
it will begin contacting UAE-approved Halal certifiers around the world
in an effort to collect Halal certification fees.
The GSM is also expected to ask foreign Halal certifiers to identify
the slaughter plants that they certify for export to the UAE with the
intention of collecting the fees from the slaughter plants. The UAE
announced in early 2007 that it would begin collecting the fees. A
subsequent fee schedule was published in June of 2007 reducing some of
the fees.
ATO Dubai has met with the GSM on a number of occasions to stress that
the fees would likely be difficult to collect given the structure of
the U.S. meat export and processing industries and would almost
certainly increase the cost of imported meat and meat products for
consumers. Local officials indicate that the fees are needed to fund
the audits and reviews of foreign Halal certifiers by UAE officials.
ThePoultrySite News Desk