Explanatory note

These Regulations provide that for the purpose of trade in cereals between the United Kingdom and other Member States of the Community the unit of measurement of standard mass per storage volume shall be the EEC standard mass per storage volume, and any expression of that characteristic in other terms shall have no effect. They also prohibit the use of the term “EEC standard mass per storage volume” to designate a characteristic of cereals unless it has been measured or calculated in accordance with the requirements of the Community provisions.

The term “EEC standard mass per storage volume” is presently defined in Council Directive No. 71/347/EEC (OJ/SE 1971 (III), p. 852) as the ratio of the mass expressed in kilograms to the volume expressed in hectolitres, as determined for any kind of grain by measurement with an instrument and according to a method which are in conformity with the provisions of that Directive. During the period in which the unit pound per bushel is lawfully in use in the United Kingdom cereals may be measured in the United Kingdom by the instruments and methods currently in use (Treaty relating to the accession of the United Kingdom to the European Economic Community and to the European Atomic Energy Community (Cmnd. 5179-I) Annex I, Part X, paragraph 14). In this case, the measurements obtained in pounds per bushel must be converted into the EEC unit of standard mass per storage volume by being multiplied by a factor of 1.25.