MANUAL ON IMPORT CERTIFICATES AND DECLARATIONS
Where an import certificate is validated by a veterinary authority in a non-EU country, a notification e-mail is sent to the border inspection post (BIP) at the point of entry to the European Union as well as to the person responsible for the load, the importer and the place of destination, provided that indications appear in the corresponding boxes and that the TRACES users belong to the selected organisations.
I. Import certificates and importers
I.1Access to the import certificate
I.1.1Access by hyperlink
If the organisation to which the importer is attached is indicated in the ‘Importer’ box (‘Traders’ tab) of the import certificate, the importer can consult the import certificate directly by clicking on the hyperlink contained in the notification e-mail he or she has received.
I.1.2 Access by menu
Importers can also access the import certificate by means of a menu. To do so, they must log into TRACES and click on ‘Veterinary certificate to EU’ in the left-hand menu, which generates the search screen for import certificates.
I.2Functions
The importer is able to complete or amend an import certificate, but only in respect of the three boxes to which he or she has authorised access (I.6, I.12 and I.16) and only if the certificate has not been cloned by the person responsible for the load or by the border inspection post.
The main reasons for the intervention of the importer are to indicate the person responsible for the load in box I.6 and to specify the place of destination in box I.12.
Note: To select an organisation, the importer, like any economic operator, must specify the country and its code or at least three characters for the name of the organisation. The percentage symbol ‘%’ can be used as a wildcard character to widen the search.
I.2.1 Selecting and amending the person responsible for the load
Completion of the ‘Person responsible for load’ box in the import certificate is not mandatory for exporting countries that are not EU Member States except in transit cases. The importer can select a person responsible in box I.6 or, if necessary, change the selected organisation in that box.
The importer is not authorised to create an organisation in that field. If the organisation designated as the ‘Person responsible for load’ does not feature in the TRACES database, the importer must ask the border inspection post to create the organisation, which it does by means of the ‘User and organisation management’ function.
In version 3.1 of TRACES, an organisation defined as the ‘Person responsible for load’ is automatically linked to a BIP. For all other activity categories, organisations are linked to local veterinary units.
Accordingly, if the organisation selected in box I.6 has the status of a person responsible for the load, the BIP to which the organisation is linked will be automatically entered in box I.16 – ‘Entry BIP in EU’ – in the ‘Transport’ tab and could amend the information that is already in the system.
I.2.2Selecting and amending the entry BIP in the EU
Completion of the ‘Entry BIP in EU’ box in the import certificate is mandatory for exporting countries that are not EU members. If, however, no organisation has been selected in box I.6 – ‘Person responsible for load’ – or if the organisation shown in that box has a status other than that of ‘Person responsible for load’, the entry BIP in box I.16 may be amended.
This amendment serves to redirect an import certificate to another BIP in the event of an error or a change in the point of entry to the EU.
I.2.3 Selecting and amending the place of destination
Completion of box I.12 – ‘Place of destination’ – in the import certificate is not mandatory for exporting countries that are not EU members. They must, however, make an entry in Box I.9 – ‘Country of destination’.
The importer may select or amend, if necessary, the organisation indicated in boxI.12 – ‘Place of destination’ – in the ‘Traders’ tab.
I.2.4 Validation of amendments
The only information that the importer can select or amend is the information contained in boxes I.6 – ‘Person responsible for load’, I.16 – ‘Entry BIP in EU’ – and I.12 – ‘Place of destination’.
As soon as the information has been entered in these boxes, the importer has to click on the ‘Submit for certification’ button so that the amendments can be saved.
Every amendment made to an import certificate, whether by the importer, the person responsible for the load or the border inspection post, generates a notification e-mail to the operators involved, to the competent authority in the non-EU country, to the BIP at the point of entry to the EU and to the person responsible for the load, the importer and the place of destination.
II. Import certificates and persons responsible for loads
II.1 Access
Like importers, if persons responsible for loads are named in box I.6 of the ‘References’ tab in the import certificate and are TRACES users, they receive an automatic e-mail notifying them of the creation of a veterinary certificate for exports to the EU.
II.1.1Access by hyperlink
The person responsible for the load can then consult the import certificate directly by clicking on the hyperlink contained in the notification e-mail.
II.1.2 Access by menu
Persons responsible for loads can also access the import certificate by means of a menu. To do so, they must log into TRACES and click on ‘Veterinary certificate to EU’ in the left-hand menu, which generates the search screen for import certificates.
The person responsible for the load is able to search for the import certificates that remain to be ‘cloned’, i.e. reproduced in the form of CVEDs, by selecting ‘To process’ from the search criteria for import certificates.
II.2 Functions
II.2.1Amending the import certificate prior to cloning
The person responsible for the load has the same access rights as the importer to amend boxes I.6 – ‘Person responsible for load’, I.12 – ‘Place of destination’ – and I.16 – ‘Entry BIP in EU’ (see subsection I.2 – ‘Functions’ – above).
The person responsible for the load is also authorised to select and amend the importer in the ‘Traders’ tab. This information, however, is not mandatory in an import certificate.
This function at the disposal of persons responsible for loads only becomes useful if they want the import certificate to be processed by another person responsible for loads or to be accessible to another border inspection post.
II.2.2 Cloning as a CVED
The person responsible for the load is able to reproduce the import certificate in the form of a Common Veterinary Entry Document (CVED). This ‘cloning’ operation involves transferring the data from PartI of an import certificate to PartI of a CVED. To do this, the user simply clicks the ‘Clone as CVED’ button in the import certificate.
This function is available to persons responsible for loads and to BIPs. Once one of them has performed the cloning operation, the button is no longer available to the other. Importers are not authorised to transfer information to a CVED in this way.
Once the import certificate has been reproduced in the form of a CVED, the import certificate can no longer be amended.
II.2.3 Creating a CVED by transferring information from the import certificate
A new CVED is created by transferring information logged into the import certificate. Box 10 – ‘Veterinary documents’ – is automatically completed with the reference number of the corresponding import certificate.
The person responsible for the load is authorised to amend or add the following information directly in the CVED:
- in the ‘References’ tab, the organisation named in box 4 – ‘Person responsible for load’,
- in the ‘Traders’ tab, boxes 3 – ‘Consignee’, 8 – ‘Delivery address’, 5 – ‘Importer’ and 11 – ‘Means of transport’,
- in the ‘Consignment’ tab, the gross weight, the net weight, the number of packages and the organisations specified in box 10 – ‘veterinary documents’, and
- in the ‘Purpose’ tab, box 19 on the conformity of the consignment with EU requirements.
As soon as this information has been entered, the person responsible for the load has to click on the ‘Submit for certification’ button to validate Part I of the CVED.
III. Import certificates and BIPs
III.1 Access
III.1.1 Access by hyperlink
The border inspection post at the point of entry to the EU must be indicated in the import certificate. This means that it automatically receives a TRACES notification e-mail informing it of the creation of a Common Veterinary Entry Certificate.
III.1.2 Access by menu
The entry BIP can also access the import certificate by means of a menu. To do so, its administrator must log into TRACES and click on ‘Veterinary certificate to EU’ in the left-hand menu, which generates the search screen for import certificates.
The BIP is able to search for the import certificates that remain to be cloned by selecting ‘To process’ from the search criteria for import certificates.
III.2 Functions
III.2.1Amending the import certificate prior to cloning
The BIP has the same access rights as the person responsible for the load, which means that it can amend boxes I.6 – ‘Person responsible for load’, I.12 – ‘Place of destination’ – and I.16 – ‘Entry BIP in EU’, provided that the certificate has not yet been cloned.
The BIP can also create an organisation responsible for the load which is not in the TRACES database by clicking on ‘User and organisation management’ in the left-hand menu.
In version 3.1, all persons responsible for loads are linked to a BIP. Accordingly, when creating an organisation with the status of ‘Person responsible for load’, the BIP must begin by designating a BIP as the assigned authority.
The sole benefits of this function at the disposal of BIPs are that it serves to designate the person responsible for the load, so that the latter can initiate the CVED, or to transfer the import certificate to another BIP in the case of a notification error or as change of entry point.
III.2. 2Cloning as a CVED
Like the forwarding agent, the BIP can directly reproduce the import certificate in the form of a Common Veterinary Entry Document by clicking on the ‘Clone as CVED’ button in the import certificate.
If the BIP clones the import certificate as a CVED, the person responsible for the load will no longer have access to the ‘Clone as CVED’ button.
III.2.3Validation of PartII of a CVED derived from cloning
If the cloning operation has been performed by the person responsible for the load, the BIP can access the CVED directly by using the menu on the left of the TRACES screen and selecting the ‘To process’ checkbox in order to complete PartII.
The BIP can then amend PartI of the CVED if need be and complete PartII in the usual manner.
IV. Consequences of cloning and import certificates
IV.1Notification of non-EU country in the event of rejection at the border
If a CVED derived from cloning is rejected at the border inspection post, a notification e-mail is sent to the local veterinary units of the non-EU countries concerned.
IV.2Access to the CVED corresponding to an import certificate by hyperlink
Users in countries outside the EU, i.e. the economic operator and the competent authority, can consult the CVED that corresponds to their import certificate by means of a hyperlink in the import certificate.
IV.3Searching for cloned import certificates
The person responsible for the load and the BIP are able to search for import certificates that have already been cloned by selecting the ‘Cloned’ checkbox in the search criteria for import certificates.