UNNExT Workshop on

Electronic Exchange of SPS Certificates for Better

Trade Control and Facilitation

21-22 October 2015

Wuhan, China

Guidance and Requirements from Codex Alimentarius (sanitary certificates)

2

Shashi Sareen

Senior Food Safety & Nutrition Officer

FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific

Bangkok, Thailand

under

Session 2: Standards and Tools for enabling e-SPS Exchange

Wuhan, China (21-22 October 2015)

Regional Workshop: Electronic Exchange of SPS Certificates for Better

Trade Control and Facilitation

Overview

• Introduction

• Codex and Codex Guidance on Guidelines for Design, Production, Issuance and Use of Generic Official Certificates (CAC/GL 38-2001)

Introduction • Globalization - transboundary movement and trade across

countries – imports/exports - trade

• Quality, health, safety, labelling, fraud issues acquiring global focus

• Requirements imposed - importing governments / buyers

• Importing countries cannot test every consignments – do not have background of every consignment

• Important to have authentication that safe practices followed across food chain to ensure product safety/ authenticity of label for specific claims (Origin, Halal, GIs, Fair Trade, etc)

• Importing countries often rely on oversight of exporting governments/ 3rd party assessments and issue of some form of communication/ information exchange that consignment meets requirements

• Official certificates (sanitary/ health/ others) is one such means

• May be paper or paperless/ e-certificates

WTO - SPS and TBT Agreements

• Covers all technical regulations, voluntary standards and the procedures to ensure that these are met. The reach is very broad. In food sector concerned with e.g labelling, information on nutrition, quality and packaging

• Covers all measures whose purpose is to protect Human or animal health from

foodborne risks or animal/ plant carried diseases

Animal and plants from disease and pests

The territory of a country from damage caused by pests

• Applies to all measures used to protect human, animal and plant life and health which may directly or indirectly affect trade

SPS Agreement TBT Agreement

SPS agreement Harmonization Article 3

• Encourage use of international standards Food safety Animal health Plant health Codex OIE IPPC

• SPS measures conforming to international standards, are presumed to be consistent with SPS Agreement

• Right to impose more stringent requirements if

based on scientific justification or risk assessment

• An Intergovernmental body

• Founded in 1962 to implement the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme – jointly hosted by FAO & WHO (1st session 1963) – 50th anniversary 2013

• Mandate protect the health of consumers ensure fair practices in international food trade

• Membership – 185 countries + 1 member org (EU) – representing 99% of world population;

• Observers: 234 international organizations:- 54 IGOs, 164 NGOs, 16 UN (representing scientific, industry, trade, consumers)

• Main function - develop harmonised international food standards, guidelines and codes of practice (for consumers health and fair trade practices)

Codex Alimentarius Comission

General Principles

(France)

Food Additives (China)

Contaminants in

Foods (Netherlands)

Food Hygiene

(USA)

Food Labelling

(Canada)

Methods of Analysis and

Sampling

(Hungary)

Pesticide Residues

(China)

Residues of Veterinary

Drugs in Foods

(USA)

General Subject Committees Commodity Committees

Milk and Milk

Products (NZ)

Processed Fruits

and Vegetables (USA)

Fish and Fishery

Products (Norway)

Fresh Fruit and

Vegetables (Mexico)

Fats and Oils

(Malaysia)

Nutrition and Foods for

Special Dietary Uses

(Germany)

Meat Hygiene

(New Zealand)

Vegetable Proteins

(Canada)

Natural Mineral

Waters

(Switzerland)

Cocoa Products and

Chocolate (Switzerland)

ad hoc Intergovernmental Task Forces

Regional Coordinating Committees

Africa

(Kenya)

Asia

(India)

Europe

(Netherlands)

Latin America

and the Caribbean

(Chile)

Near East

(Iran)

North America and

the Southwest Pacific

(Vanuatu)

Executive Committee Secretariat

CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION

Food Import and

Export Inspection

and Certification

Systems (Australia)

active

adjourned

Organization Chart

Cereals, Pulses and

Legumes (USA)

Sugars

(Colombia)

Spices and Culinary

Herbs (India)

dissolved

Animal Feeding (Switzerland)

Antimicrobial Resistance

(Republic of Korea)

Biotechnology (Japan)

Fruit and Vegetable Juices(Brazil)

Processing and Handling of Quick Frozen Foods

(Thailand)

Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Certification and Inspection Systems (CCFICS)

• Established in 1992 ; Host Government: Australia • Consumer confidence in the safety and quality of

their food supply depends on the effectiveness of inspection and certification systems as food control measures

• TORs (b) To develop principles and guidelines… to provide

assurance where necessary that foodstuffs comply with requirements, especially statutory health requirements;

(d) To develop guidelines and criteria with respect to format, declarations and language of such official certificates as countries may require a view towards international harmonization;

(e) To make recommendations for information exchange in relation to food import/export control

Codex Guidance—Official Certificates

• Codex Guidelines for Design, Production, Issuance and Use of Generic Official Certificates (CAC/GL 38-2001) (Adopted 2001; Revisions 2005, 2007, 2009)

Provide guidance on design, production, issuance & use of official certificates to attest that food meets importing country requirements for food safety and fair trade practices

Recognizes the CA can require official certificates as a condition for clearance

GL not meant to encourage/mandate use of official certificates

Applicable to official certificates regardless of mode of transmission – ie both paper and electronic

• Generic Model Official Certificate adopted by the 32nd Session of CAC as an Annex to CAC/GL 38-2001

• Model Certificates also adopted by Commodity Committees – Fish and Fishery Products (CAC/GL 48-2004) – Milk and Milk Products (CAC/GL 67-2008)

Definitions

• Certificates are those paper or electronic documents, which describe and attest to attributes of consignments of food moving in international trade.

• Certification is the procedure by which official or officially recognized certification bodies provide written or equivalent assurance that foods or food control systems conform to requirements. Certification of food may be, as appropriate, based on a range of inspection activities which may include continuous on-line inspection, auditing of quality assurance systems, and examination of finished products.

• Official certificates are certificates issued by an official certification body of an exporting country, in accordance with the requirements of an importing or exporting country.

Principles

• Certificates should only be required when essential information and attestations are necessary to ensure food safety and/or fair trade practices (Section 5, Principle A)

• Recognizes that countries may provide assurances through means other than consignment-by-consignment certificates (Section 6, Principle B)

Principles

• Information and attestations should be essential, determined by the requirements of the importing country’s food inspection system, and applied in a non-discriminatory manner (Section 7, Principles C and D)

– Commercial or marketing specifications (e.g. conformance to importer specifications) should not be required

– Importing countries should communicate the requirements for official attestations and information to be contained on the certificates and their rationale

Principles

• Information should be presented in a form that simplifies and expedites the clearance process while meeting the importing country’s requirements (Section 8, Principle E)

– To the extent practicable, use a standard format (e.g. generic model official certificate)

– Clearly describe the commodity and consignment to which the certificate relates

– Contain clear reference to those official requirements for which the certificate is issued

Principles

• Information on the certificate should include as a minimum (Section 8, Principle E): – Nature of the food

– Name of the product

– Quantity

– Description of the commodity and consignment

– Identity, as appropriate, of the producer/manufacturer

– Exporter or consignor

– Importer or consignee

– Country of dispatch

– Country of destination

• Additional information as agreed to by the importing and exporting country

Principles

• The competent authority of the exporting country is responsible for any certificate it issues or authorizes to be issued (Section 9, Principles F) – Ensure certificates are issued in a timely manner so as to

avoid unnecessary disruption to trade

– Ensure adequate oversight of third party certifying bodies, when authorized and utilized

Principles

• All relevant attestations and identifying information required by the importing country should be included on a single official certificate, where possible, to avoid multiple or redundant certificates. (Section 9, Principles G) – Avoid the need for redundant or duplicative certificates

– Ensure adequate means to protect proprietary or commercially sensitive information

Additional Information

• Use of Paper Certificates

• Use of Electronic Certificates

• Presentation of Original Certificates

• Replacement of Certificates

• Revocation of Certificates

• Invalid Certificates

• Fraudulent Certificates (Principle H) - Competent authorities should take appropriate action to prevent the use of fraudulent certificates and should assist, as appropriate, in the timely investigation of such use.

Use of paper certificates • Paper certificates, in original, to be issued and presented to

exporter/ agent

• Paper certificates should, to the extent practicable, be in compliance with the UN Layout Key for Trade Documentation (Recommendation No 1, ECE/TRADE/137)

• A copy of original certificate (clearly marked) to be kept by CB of exporting country & provided to importing country CA on request,

• When issuing a paper certificate, the CO to ensure that: the certificate has no deletions; any alterations of the certified information is initialed or approved by CB;

for multiple page certificates, all pages constitute a single certificate incl official translation (each page is numbered with the same unique number);

the certificate bears the official identifier of CA, signature, name and official

position of the certifying officer; the certificate bears the date on which signed and issued and validity; and no portion of certificate is left blank to allow it to be amended.

Use of electronic certificates

• For export certificates exchanged electronically b/w CAs of exporting and importing countries, the system should:

consider data elements and message structure such as those set/ratified by the United Nations Centre of Trade Facilitation and Electronic Commerce for electronic certificates exchanged b/w government border authorities. Both countries to agree on data elements to be exchanged;

consider application of available technologies for data message exchange to ensure that data exchange options support business continuity;

assure integrity of the certification system during the exchange of electronic data to protect against fraud, infection from viruses, etc and to maintain system integrity.

Use of electronic certificates

include a mechanism to control and protect system access against unauthorized entry. CAs of both countries to agree on access rights, including the officials to have access;

include technical or procedural mechanisms to prevent the fraudulent reuse of electronic certificates;

take a/c of limitations of infrastructure and capabilities of developing countries;

include a contingency plan to minimise disruption to trade in case of system failure.

• The exporter or their agent to be notified when an electronic certificate has been authorized for a consignment

Generic Model Official Certificate

• Reduces complexity of multiple formats

• Facilitates transition from paper to electronic

• Considers common trade practices

• Enables coverage of a broad range of food products and accommodates multiple products on a single certificate

• Annex to CAC/GL 38-2001

Benefits of e-certification • Increase the robustness of the pre-certification verification

checks, by keeping verification information in one place

• Improve efficiency of the export certification process – delays avoided

• Reduce cost of verification and certification

• Significantly reduce the risk of errors

• Reduce likelihood of tampering & fraud –paper certificates can be tampered with, providing border authorities with access to e-cert means they can validate certificates online

• Offer ability to rapidly respond to changing market requirements

• Easier to have single certificates for multiple purposes

• Tracking easier

Future Work on Electronic Certificates by Codex

• Recognizing the increasing use of electronic means of moving information, CCFICS should consider this area in depth and its impact on the operation of food control authorities, including in particular, the areas of electronic certification and the exchange of information in such areas as alternatives to certification (e.g. establishment lists). CCFICS should consider the development of guidance relating to this field, whether as changes to existing CCFICS-developed Codex texts or as new texts.

• Possible use of electronic certificates by CAs, including migration to paperless certification (led by the Netherlands) for 22nd Session of CCFICS in 2016 Feb.

Useful websites • FAO Food Safety and quality home page

http://www.fao.org/food/food-safety-quality/home-page/en/

• Web page on Vet & Public Health, Feed & Food Safety; www.fao.org/ag/AGAinfo/programmes/en/A6.html

• Emergency prevention & early warning in area of food safety (EMPRES Food Safety): EMPRES-FS@fao.org

• INFOSAN – International food safety authorities network –https://extranet.who.int/infosan/

• *FAO Regional office for Asia and the Pacific http://www.fao.org/asiapacific/rap/home/en/

• *Capacity Building and implementation of international food safety standards in ASEAN countries http://foodsafetyasiapacific.net/

• Food Retail Network in Asia http://foodretailnetwork.asia/

Conclusions

• Design an official certificate consistent with provisions in CAC/GL 38-2001 – including format

• E-certification has significant benefits – countries may consider development of IT system to provide for this

• Encourage use of single certificates covering all required information rather than multiple certificates

• Certificates based on appropriate oversight by exporting government/ 3rd Party

THANK YOU