Significant issues AEA involved in negotiation in 2009

Hi, I’m Roger Lane Nott and I’m the Director General and Chief Executive of the Agricultural Engineer’s Association. In the next few minutes, I’m just going to cover some of the significant issues that the AEA has been involved in over the last few years. This will give you an idea of what the AEA does and some of the work that we’re involved in.

First then, product liability. Well you will be aware of the difficulties with product liability and the directive that has come out both from Europe and the UK. There have been changes to the law and we really do need to make sure that manufacturers and dealers understand exactly what is going on. We have spent a considerable amount of time providing advice and guidance for both manufacturers and dealers on product liability.

Next is Distribution Agreements, both European Union and UK, vertical and horizontal and these Distribution Agreements both across the European Union different countries and also between manufacturers and dealers. They are a hot topic and we’ve spent a considerable amount of time again in trying to ensure that Distribution Agreements are fair and clear.

Removal of tractors from the Machinery Directive. You will be aware that the Machinery Directive has been reformed and re-written over the last few years and was issued at the end of 2009. It won’t surprise you that the European Union Guidance for that is nearly 400 pages long. And of course, what this will have is a huge effect on all the various International, European and British Standards that it involves. So if you’re involved in actually designing or making something, we can help you and guide you through what is really a bit of mine field.

Statistical exchange. This is a difficult area, because it covers competition law and indeed we ran up against the European Union ten years or so ago. So we’re particularly careful that when we collect statistics and market intelligence that we do so in a manner that will not breach competition law. We have had to change some of the ways we do things, but we still believe that we provide a definitive view on what is going on in the industry. For example, whether its tractor registrations, combine registrations or brush cutters. We can give you that information, as long, of course, as you’re a member.

The 2002 Consumer Guarantee Regulations for garden machinery was another area which changed the law on how consumers could approach dealers and manufacturers. Again, we spent a considerable amount of time in trying to help, particularly manufacturers, but dealers as well, in how they fight their way through this mine field.

Consolidation of UK agricultural shows. There are far too many shows and if you go to an average manufacturer, they’re doing 20 or 25 shows a year in the UK. In our area, certainly we believe there’s a need to consolidate some of the shows. We certainly on farm machinery will go to [Larna 0:03:20], we’ll go cereals. We have our own shows. Tillage, two each year and ScotGrass. And on the outdoor power equipment side, you’ve got Soltex in September at Windsor and then a plethora of other ones like BTME and so forth. And the industry as a whole is struggling now to meet the demands of all these shows. And again, in discussion with dealers, we’ve spent a lot of time trying to persuade people that there needs to be consolidation. Of course, this is standing on a bit of turf wars, but we have to do it to make it more realistic.

There was a threat of a pesticide tax about five years ago that was going to hurt the industry very much indeed. And whatever you may think about the environmental impacts, the reality of life in 2010 is that you cannot grow crops without pesticide. I am not shooting the organics here; there is a place for organics. But unfortunately if we went entirely organic, we could not feed the world, yet alone the United Kingdom. So there’s got to be a balance again in that. And when this pesticide tax was threatened, we came up with a voluntary initiative across the whole of the industry so that we could make a way of actually trying to reduce the amount of pesticides we used, to use them in a proper manner. Out of that came the National Sprayer Testing Scheme which we at the AEA run doing something like 1,500 tests a year.

That has made a big impact. Not only have we’ve seen the quality of sprayer maintenance rise significantly and the leaks almost disappear. But we’ve also seen more responsible use of spraying and we’ve seen from the Environmental Agency the fact that water course samples have really produced results that have been stunning to the extent that we’ve not quite illuminated pesticides from rivers and water courses but pretty close to it. Unfortunately the amenities sector isn’t quite like that. And what do I mean by that? I mean parks and gardens and corporate and railway lines and highways. And there is more work to be done on that and we will continue to do so.

We have reformed CEMA. CEMA – the European Association of Associations which looks specifically into the European Union taking views from equivalent associations to the AEA and France, Germany and the other European member states. We were instrumental in that reform, ensuring that industry figures were put actually into to the middle of that and industry had a strong voice so that we could collectively go to the European Union singing from the same hymn sheet.
In 2007, we had a challenge from the French to stop garden machinery coming through their ports on the grounds of health and safety. This is against the European law, we challenged this and it’s ongoing. But it has affected outdoor power equipment manufacturers significantly in some areas. And it again shows the complexity of European law and how we can fight our way through it.

And finally, tractor type approval. Another subject that is close to many farmer’s hearts; and how we register tractors, whether they’re registered as an agricultural vehicle or not. The issue of red diesel and when you can and when you can’t use it. The problem of actually having self propelled vehicles, not just tractors, but any self propelled agricultural machinery on the road. And how you use it and so forth. And all those things we’ve made big strides in trying to improve it.
So those are some of the significant issues. If they are issues for you, then please get in touch with the AEA, we’d like to hear what you’ve got to say. And please don’t hesitate to contact us. Try anyway as a starter www.aea.uk.com.