Following the adoption of the 'Animal Health Law' (Regulation (EU) 2016/429), published on 31 March 2016 and the 'plant health regime' (Regulation (EU) 2016/2031), published on 23 November 2016, the new regulation on 'official controls and certification (Regulation (EU) 2017/625) has been published on 7 April 2017. It will enter into force 14 December 2019 unless otherwise indicated. The implementing regulations that will be taken based on these texts in the domain of official controls and official certification are the basis for the development of the new TRACES platform: TNT (TRACES New Technology). However, the discussions on border control procedures for animals, plants and food, already under way which are soon expected to result in changes to the current implementing acts, will make it possible to draw up a Common Health Entry Document (CHED) harmonized in accordance with Article 56 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.

As it is anticipated of TRACES and to already fulfil the wishes of the Member States, based on the discussions during the Dutch and Slovak Presidencies and the experience of current TRACES users, the module for the border control of plants, should be launched on TNT at the end of June 2017, together with the module for the certification of plant imports. Inaugurating also the gradual transition from the existing to the new platform.

The implementation of the electronic identification, in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 on electronic transactions, the only means to abandon the paper versions of health certificates, which is taken up in all the texts mentioned above is getting closer to being realised. In the coming weeks a company will be chosen who will act as a trusted third party within the framework of the provision and recognition of electronic signatures. Already announced pilot projects with Morocco, New Zealand and Australia could be launched before the summer break. A survey on the impact of the introduction of reducing the paper work at the border inspection posts should be launched very soon.

But I would also like to remind you that with the FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade) and COI (Certificate of Inspection (of organic produce)) certificates TNT is already a reality and based on Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1842 the use of TRACES for COI will be mandatory from 19 October 2017 onwards.

I would like to highlight two initiatives for TRACES: on one hand very constructive discussions with Russia who has decided to extend the scope of the certification project through TRACES starting on 24 April and on the other hand a tentative technical cooperation with Iran in the framework of using TRACES, a first in the European Union since the nuclear deal was signed on 14 July 2015 and the freezing of any action during the previous 12 years.

And finally I would like to draw your attention to the restart of the BTSF programme (Better Training for Safer Food), which is dedicated to trainings on the use of the different TRACES modules for participants from the Member States. The first session is planned for June and will take place in Vilnius. During the next two years 16 workshops on  animal, food, and plant control, and as a novelty on the import of organic products will be organised.

I will now let you read this newsletter, in which you will also discover a preview of extracts from the annual report 2016 for TRACES, as well as a summary of the modifications that have been introduced to TRACES during the last six months.

Version 2.5.1 has been launched on 4 April 2017. The release note describing the improvements and changes of this version can be found here.

This version mainly includes the following aspects:

• COI: The COI certificate module has been adapted in order to reflect the new certificate model published in the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU)  1842/2016;
• Changed handling of user validation: the validation of new users has been reduced from two validation steps to only one. From now on, it is enough to validate a role a user requested in order to grant access to TRACES NT;
• Updated authority roles:  the authority database in TRACES NT was reorganised to prepare for the future inclusion of new certificates in TRACES NT

Anybody wishing to try out TNT in the Training environment, regardless of being a user concerned by the available certificates or simply a current user who is curious to discover the changes, please contact the TRACES Helpdesk (sante-traces@ec.europa.eu), who will provide you with information on how to gain access.

Version 6.35 has been installed on the production environment on 12 December 2016. The release note describing the improvements and changes of this version can be found here: https://circabc.europa.eu/w/browse/e144743a-f09b-49c7-a30b-7f1049d74c7f

This version mainly includes the following aspects:

• Invasive alien species: Implementation of the official controls foreseen in article 15 of Regulation 1143/2014 "on the prevention and management of the introduction and spread of invasive alien species" for animals as well as for plants. The selection of an invasive alien species in the column "species" will trigger an alert message. The column "permit" enables authorised establishments to import them and they will be able to indicate a specific reason in case of rejection.
• Link with EUROPHYT: the drop-down menus for the identification of harmful organisms will be created and an alert message appears when a new organism has been detected.
• Official private veterinary (OPV): They will have the functionality "copy as replacement" and will receive notifications about controls that have been executed on certificates they created.
• DOCOM and acknowledgement of reception: the economic operators will be able to acknowledge the reception of a DOCOM that has been addressed to them. A notification will be sent to the originating authority and the authority in the country of destination.

Version 6.35.01 has been installed on the production environment on 6 March 2017. The release note describing the improvements and changes of this version can be found here:
https://circabc.europa.eu/w/browse/e33c16ac-891b-4e15-954d-dedf1f4844f1

This version mainly includes the following aspects:

• Access to authorities: the inspectors will have access to the menu "Authorities" as well as to the email addresses of users that are part of the list.
• Replacement of certificates: Highlighting the modified parts in case of a replacement
• Horses: Creation of a new organisation type "equine holding" for the EU LMS list

A working group on BOVEX, with France, Belgium, Italy and Spain, was held on 24 November 2016 to review the new version 2.40 installed on 3 October 2016 and to discuss the points to improve : Transit through assembly centers and registration in the national database, accuracy of date of first calving, explanation of the mechanism of automatic recall, creation of a harmonized table for race and colour codes and setting up a discussion forum, integration into the "identification of bovine" the BOVEX status of the passport.

The report of this working group is available through the following hyperlink

Following the call for tenders and the selection of AESA as the organizer of training workshops on the use of TRACES by the EU Member States, through the following hyperlink you will find 16 trainings foreseen, according to the program and timetable: I would like to draw your attention to the fact that only applications sent by the national contact point are taken into account.

An extract of TRACES annual activity report for 2016 is currently available in electronic version in English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese:

http://ec.europa.eu/food/animals/traces/information-material_en

Feel free to send us your comments and share these reports on social networks!

In accordance with the requirements of Section III of Annex II to Regulation 853/2004 on the transmission by the farmer of the health information of animals sent to the slaughterhouse, the commercial document 'Information on the food chain concerning pigs for slaughter' has been activated in TRACES since 6 March 2017. It is however to be deplored that two months after its launch no DOCOM was made for this purpose in TRACES!

Initiated under the Dutch Presidency with two working groups on 24 May and 10 June, the study of the business procedures for importing and controlling plants continued under the Slovak Presidency. Two additional meetings (September 15th and October 17th) allowed us to modelize the future module for control plants in TNT.

Following these intense and fruitful discussions, a letter was sent to the Head of Plant Health Services of the Member States on 17 January 2017 to announce the program and timeline for the implementation of plant protection modules in TRACES. You can consult the program through the following hyperlink.

Before their launch in production, tests of the import certification and border control modules will be carried out on the one hand by Morocco, the Ivory Coast, Costa Rica and Ecuador and on the other by the 11 Precursors (Austria, Estonia, France, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Switzerland) at the beginning of June.

In 2016, the 5 Member States (Belgium, Spain, France, Greece, Italy) using this interface to send and receive information on bovine passport exchanges electronically exchanged more than 1.4 million bovines in more than 52,000 batches and more than 1,289,000 passports were automatically integrated into national databases, accounting for over 90% of shipments. As you will see in the report, the analysis of 8.7% non-automatically integrated is mainly related to cattle passing through assembly centers from countries that are not yet participating in BOVEX. It is indeed to be deplored that in 2016 the community BOVEX has not expanded. You will find hereafter the activity of each of these countries.

The pilot project of export certification to the Kaliningrad region started on 15 October 2016 for canned food of animal origin intended for pets, non-canned / dried food of animal origin for pets and feed additives of animal origin had been extended on 25 November 2016 to day-old chicks, turkey, ducklings, goslings, one-day ostrich chicks and hatching eggs of those species, bovine cattle and breeding, sheep and goats breeding and cattle, fur-bearing animals, horses / equines for breeding, production and sport (with the exception of sports horses imported temporarily to participate To competitions and horses / equine horses imported temporarily, to bovine offal, to animal casings, to horsemeat and preparations made from raw horse meat, to hides and skins dried or dried parts and parts thereof obtained from fur bearing animals for the manufacture of fur, raw materials of animal origin intended for the manufacture of non-productive animal feed (pet food) and the manufacture of fur Animal feed.

From 24 April 2017 a particularly interesting extension of the expeditions to the regions of St. Petersburg and Leningrad, Tver and Pskov was made with the addition of a certificate called "canned meat, salamis and other prepared meat products".

Certificates issued by TRACES do not need to be printed on security paper and the EMs using them do not need to send blank copies of these templates beforehand.

In accordance with the obligations imposed by Regulation 2016/535 allowing certification for the transit to Singapore of fresh meat originating from New Zealand, Singapore issued its first certificate on 27 January 2017.

Following the BTSF training in Khulna and Chittagong from 30 October to 4 November 2016, DOF (Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock) began using TRACES by issuing its first certificate on 4 March 2017.

Bangladesh, member of the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation), joined the Maldives. Pending India, 5th exporter of fishery products, and Sri Lanka which still has not concretized its training of August 2016.

Following the BTSF training that took place in Bangkok in January 2017, the Department of Livestock Development (DLD) began using TRACES with its first certificate on 20 March 2017.

With the accession of Thailand and Singapore into TRACES along with Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Myanmar, Malaysia is the only country which still has not concretized its training of October 2015.

All the EXPORT certificates are now available via the public CIRCABC site. To receive automatic notifications about any changes in this list, follow the instructions in the user guide.

Following ANSA's request, two training workshops were organized on the use of control modules at the border for animals, food, by-products and plants. These workshops were held in Chisinau from 3 to 7 October 2016. It permitted to train 79 BIP inspectors.

A training workshop for member states about organic products with exercises on the certification module for these products organized under the "Better Training for Safer Food Program" was held in Valencia from 18 to 21 October 2016. Participating countries : Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.  

To meet the demand of the Director General of the DOF (Department of Fisheries (Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock)) of 28 February 2016 for the use of the Export Certification Module, a training workshop was organized by BTSF from 30 October to 4 November 2016 for certifiers and export companies, including 20 DOF staff (2 at the central level, 2 certifiers from the Dhaka region, 10 from Khulna and 6 from Chittagong), one customs inspector and 24 representatives of 28 companies were trained.

To meet the demand of the NSI (Namibian Standards Institution) of 5 August 2016, public agency responsible for export certification of fishery products, two training sessions were organized by BTSF in Walvis Bay and Luderitz from 31 October to 4 November 2016 for inspectors and exporters. Eleven inspectors and 30 representatives of exporting companies were trained. This training follows the one held in August 2012 which, despite commitments, has not yet been concretized.

A conference entitled "Food chain in the digital single market" was organized jointly by the Slovak Presidency and the European Commission on 9 November 2016. It attracted more than 300 people. Numerous points were raised, challenges ahead from nutrition to digital commerce to electronic certification. You can access all presentations through this hyperlink.

A training workshop for Member States over the module of certification of intra-EU trade organized under the "Better Training for Safer Food Program" was held in Turin from 14 to 18 November 2016. 21 Member States (Germany, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) and one EFTA Member State (Norway) participated.

The demands of the MS on TRACES focus mainly on the problem of organizations (duplicate, pre-valid status, display of status, creation authority) and essential information for animal welfare (plurality of vehicles, change of vehicle during the transport, neutralization of shipping time). The modification and deletion of a control, access to the decision support directly from a hypertext link on the regulatory references of the second part of an INTRA, the extension to 6 months of the validity of the password, improvement of user guides and statistical tools, the creation of specific lists of equine farms, and the highlighting of changes made in a replacement certificate complete the expectations of the MS.

A meeting with the Australian representatives of the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR) and representatives of New Zealand's Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) took place from 29 November till 1st December in Sydney for the implementation of the dematerialisation of veterinary certificates. Even if the electronic exchanges between the databases and TRACES work well with these two countries, the safeguards imposed by the R 910/2014 for the electronic transactions require the implementation of a qualified electronic signature that is not a server certificate as proposed. As soon as our service provider will be selected, the solution will be implemented and the pilot project with these two countries will begin.

Awaiting the introduction of the electronic signature, it has been proposed to generalize electronic exchanges to all exported goods. Taking into account the respective responsibilities of the ministries and the configuration of their database, the New Zealanders will work on dairy products, animal casings and animal by-products and Australians will work on fishery products, dairy products and animal by-products.

To meet the demand of the Director of the DLD (Department of Livestock Development) and the Director of the DOF (Department Of Fisheries) for the use of the export certification module, two training workshops were organized by BTSF from 16 to 20 January 2017 in Bangkok for certifiers and export companies. Therefore, 8 DOF inspectors (7 from FIQCD and 1 from AHRD division in charge of aquarium fish), 13 DLD inspectors, 1 ACFS representative and 1 computer scientist as well as 23 representatives from 23 companies (including the three largest exporters of poultry meat and one exporter of fishery products) have been trained.

The authorities of the Sanitary, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Administration of Montenegro participated from 7 to 10 February in 2 training workshops for the use of TRACES system. During the two training sessions, 33 people received the information and put into practice their knowledge (13 authorities and 20 economic operators). In the first group the assistants learned to work with the IMPORT module to create and validate export certificates to the EU. The second session was devoted to the certification and implementation of certification at the border inspection post in Montenegro for products from the EU (the EXPORT module).

The authorities recognize the advantages of TRACES but they do not feel ready to implement the system immediately for certification purposes.

The economic operators reacted positively to the possibility of using the TRACES system to replace the current certification procedure. Access to information was considered the most positive aspect of the system.

To meet the demand of the MoCCaE (Ministry of Climate Change and Environment) for the use of the export certification module, a training workshop was organized on 8 and 9 March 2017 in Dubai for certifiers and export companies. Therefore, 10 officials (5 from MoCaE, 4 from the competent authority in Dubai, 1 from Abu Dhabi) and 16 representatives from 9 companies, including the one in charge of certification of horses and equine semen (ERA) and the one in charge of the export of camel's milk) have been trained.

As a follow-up to the training provided in March 2015, a training workshop was organized on 12 and 13 March 2017 in Riyadh for the certifiers of the SFDA (Saudi Food and Drug Administration) and the exporting companies. Thus, 15 people (10 from the SFDA, 4 from the Ministry of Agriculture) and 1 representative from the only company currently exporting fishery products (National Aquaculture Group) were trained.

A presentation of the potentialities of TRACES was made to the GSO (Gulf Cooperation Council Standardization Organization: a regional organization which includes 6 countries (Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and headquartered in Riyadh)). It was proposed to make available to the GSO and its members all the modules of TRACES (export, import, trade, border control). The challenges are the certification of the annual movements of almost 2000 horses from the CCGs and the harmonization of EU export certificates to the GCC and their integration into TRACES.

A meeting was held on 16 March 2017 in Brussels with representatives of the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor). The meeting's objective was to make a point on pilot project concerning the certification in TRACES system, launched on 15 October 2016.

Despite the low number of consignments, 21 in 5 months, and the low number of issuing countries (Czech Republic, Italy, Germany) the Russians were satisfied. Two problems were identified. The one of the premise identification systematically with their country code and the definition of the country of origin which is the one which manufactured the products and which must appear as such in box I.7. whereas in TRACES it is the country that issues the certificate. Proposals have been made to solve these issues.

In order to have a more representative number of exports, the Russians proposed to open up exports from the MS not only to the Kaliningrad region but to the regions of Saint Petersburg and Leningrad, Tver and Pskov. They have even added the certificate of exports of canned meat, salamis and other prepared meat products. This new sample will start on 24 April 2017.

Considering the Russians objective of dematerialization for the movement of goods on their territory, including those to and from the Kaliningrad region which transit through the EU, it was reaffirmed by DG HEALTH the priority given to IT developments between MERCURY (the Russian database) and TRACES.

Europe: 28 Member States of the EU, 4 EFTA countries, Andorra, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Faeroe Islands, Kosovo (¹), Moldavia, Saint-Marin, Serbia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Albania.

Africa: South Africa, Algeria, Cap-Verde, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Maurice, Mauritania, Uganda, Senegal, the Seychelles, Tanzania, Tunisia

America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ecuador, Greenland, Guatemala, Honduras, the Falklands, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, Uruguay.

Asia: Indonesia, Israel, Myanmar, Maldives, Philippines, Taiwan, Turkey, Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, Singapore.

Oceania: Australia, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, French Polynesia, Republic of Fiji.

¹ - This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.

* source: TRACES

Are you an economic operator trading within the European Union? Or a competent authority? Visit the TRACES website for more information or visit the TRACES Toolkit to have access to all users' manuals, video and templates.

Don't hesitate to contact the TRACES Helpdesk for any question.