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Animal Products Act 1999

Export of animal material and products - Export requirements and official assurances

61: Director-General may issue official assurances

You could also call this:

"The government can give official promises to other countries about New Zealand animal products."

The Director-General, or someone they authorise under section 65, can issue an official assurance about animal material or animal products. This assurance is a statement to a foreign government, or its agent, that certain things are true about the animal material or product. You might see assurances that a product meets certain standards, or that it has been processed in a certain way.

The Director-General can assure foreign governments that animal products meet New Zealand's standards and any extra requirements. They can also assure that the situation in New Zealand is as stated in the assurance.

An official assurance does not guarantee that the products are suitable for every buyer, or that they will always be safe to use. It also does not guarantee that the products will be safe if they are used for something other than what they were intended for.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM34841.

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"The government is not responsible if you lose money because another country won't accept New Zealand animal products."

Part 5Export of animal material and products
Export requirements and official assurances

61Director-General may issue official assurances

  1. The Director-General, or a person authorised by the Director-General under section 65, may issue an official assurance in respect of animal material or animal product.

  2. Without limiting the matters to which an official assurance may apply, an official assurance is a general statement to a foreign government, or an agent of a foreign government, attesting that, as appropriate, any 1 or more of the following applies in respect of any animal material or animal product:

  3. any specified process has been completed under this Act with respect to the animal material or product concerned:
    1. the animal product concerned meets the applicable animal product standards and any supplementary notices:
      1. any export requirements that are stated in the assurance have been met:
        1. the situation in New Zealand, in relation to any matter concerning animal material or animal products, is as stated in the assurance.

          1. An official assurance is not a guarantee that the contents of all or any particular consignment of animal material or animal products to which it relates—

          2. necessarily meet the commercial requirements of the importer; or
            1. are fit for consumption or use no matter what the status or description of the consumer or user, or what has happened to the consignment or what has been its treatment since it left New Zealand; or
              1. are fit for consumption or use for a purpose other than that for which they were intended.

                Notes
                • Section 61: substituted, on , by section 17 of the Animal Products Amendment Act 2005 (2005 No 26).
                • Section 61(2)(b): amended, on , by section 109(1) of the Food Safety Law Reform Act 2018 (2018 No 3).
                • Section 61(2)(c): amended, on , by section 109(2) of the Food Safety Law Reform Act 2018 (2018 No 3).