Health and Food Safety

TRACESTRAde Control and Expert System

SynopsisTraceability and risk managementfor animals and animal products

30 January 2015 12:18 PM

TRACES

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Table of contents

I. What is TRACES ......................................................................................................................................................................... 3

II. Background .................................................................................................................................................................................. 3

III. How it works................................................................................................................................................................................ 4INTRA: trade within EU countries ........................................................................................................................................................................................................4

IMPORT: trade from non-EU countries to the EU ................................................................................................................................................................4

EXPORT: trade from EU to non-EU countries ..........................................................................................................................................................................4

IV. Additional features .................................................................................................................................................................. 5

V. Benefits of using TRACES ...................................................................................................................................................... 5

VI. Facts and figures ....................................................................................................................................................................... 5

VII. Policies linked to TRACES ...................................................................................................................................................... 8

VIII. Future ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 8

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TRACES - Trade Control and Expert SystemStart date: 01/04/2004

Team leader: Dr. Didier CartonAnimal health unit, DG Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), European Commission, Brussels

73 participating countries: 28 EU countries, 4 EFTA countries, 41 non-EU countries, Morocco, New Caledonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Benin, Mauritius, Mexico, New Zealand, French Polynesia, Senegal, Mayotte, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Madagascar, Seychelles, Faroe Islands, Mauritania, Saint Pierre et Miquelon, Uruguay, Cape Verde Ecuador, Falkland Islands, Honduras, Kenya, Nicaragua, Panama, Serbia, Tunisia, United States of America, South Africa, Algeria, Fiji, Israel, Namibia, Uganda, Kosovo, Ivory Coast, Indonesia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines and Tanzania

Website: http://ec.europa.eu/traces/

I. What is TRACESTRACES is a multilingual online management tool for the control and certification of trade in animals, products of animal origin, feed and food of non-animal origin, as well as plants, seeds and propagating material.

TRACES is an e-government system following the requirements of the EU Digital Agenda towards dematerialisation of the health documents, and is an efficient tool to ensure:

• Traceability: TRACES keeps track of the movements, both within the EU and from non-EU countries.• Exchange of information: TRACES enables traders and competent authorities to easily obtain information on the

movement of their consignments. TRACES speeds up the administrative procedures.• Risk management: TRACES reacts rapidly in case of health threats by tracing back the movements of consignments

and by facilitating the risk management of rejected consignments.

As a result, TRACES aims to strengthen the cooperation with the EU partners, to facilitate the trade, to speed up the administrative procedures, to improve the risk management of health threats and to enhance the safety of the food chain and animal health.

II. BackgroundFollowing the outbreak in Europe of the classical swine fever in 1997, a report of the Court of Auditors basis for a resolution from the European Parliament invited the EU Commission to improve the traceability of the animals’ movement within the single market.The Animal health unit of the Directorate-General Health and Food Safety of the European Commission, implemented TRACES under the coordination of Dr. Didier Carton (veterinary officer) head of the TRACES team. Since its implementation in April 2004, TRACES prooves to be an efficient tool for veterinary, public and plant health authorities when it comes to respond promptly and in a coordinated manner to health threats.

TRACES

EU/EFTACountriesdocuments

operators

Commission economic

TRAdeEuropean

Chec

ks

EUEXPORT

Toolkit notifi cationlanguages

establishments

animalsvideo

Entrycodeinformation

healthsystem

Border

origin

com

mon

data

CVEDtools

news

user

non-

EUCo

mpe

tent

cert

ifi ca

tion

country

products management

Offi cial

subm

issi

onPA

RTA

utho

ritie

s

Bettersing

le m

arke

t

Customs

Memberlistings

requ

irem

ents

Local

Union

case

consumers

Vie

w

intra-EU

procedures

feedback

Dec

isio

n

trai

ning

use

proc

esse

s

envi

ronm

ent

UM

By-products

prod

ucti

on

discover

application

elec

tron

ic

access

non-

anim

al

LMS

helpdeskICT veterinary

cons

ignm

ent

IMPORT

Plants

national

EC

food sani

tary

RASFF

users contact

business

gateway

Unit

traceabilityexpert

Legislation

diff

eren

t

live

DG

TRAde Control and Expert System(TRACES)

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III. How it worksThe TRACES network is composed by national authorities, local competent authorities (LCA), control posts at the border (BIP) and traders. They are all involved in the certification process via TRACES that - according to the geographic scope- might be:

INTRA: trade within EU countries

Initialisation of tradeWhen EU traders want to trade animals and certain products of animal origin, they initiate electronically a certificate request directly in TRACES.

Authority decisionIf the consignment complies with all sanitary requirements, the LCA will fill the second part of the certificate with health information and will validate the certificate.

ChecksThe LCA of the country of transit or destination may check the consignment and include the information to the certificate.

IMPORT: trade from non-EU countries to the EU

Initialisation of tradeWhen non-EU traders want to trade animals and animal products, they initiate electronically a certificate requests directly in TRACES.

Authority decisionIf the consignment complies with all sanitary requirements, the LCA will fill the second part of the certificate with health information and will validate the certificate.

ChecksThe EU trader initiates electronically the border control document request when a consignment arrives at the EU border. After the checks have been carried out by the BIP, the certificate is validated directly in TRACES.

EXPORT: trade from EU to non-EU countries

Initialisation of tradeWhen an EU trader wants to export animals and animal products, they electronically initiate a certificate request directly in TRACES.

Authority decisionIf the consignment complies with all sanitary requirements, the LCA will fill the second part of the certificate with the health information and validates the certificate.

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IV. Additional features• Whenever a competent authority takes a decision upon a consignment submitted in TRACES, he will be presented

automatically with all relevant consolidated legislation, safeguard measures and details on checks already performed on similar consignments. This is referred to as a ‘Help to Decision’.

• At each stage of the certification process, the involved competent authorities receive automatic notifications via TRACES and may get in contact with each other. Traders can check at any time the evolution of the certification process.

• The lists of authorised non-EU establishments to export to the EU are published through TRACES.

V. Benefits of using TRACES

For traders • Speed up of the administrative procedures • Facilitate international trade thanks to the multilingual application• Possibility to consult every stage of certification

For consumers • Traceability of the food chain• Better checks on animals, animal and non-animal products • Prompt risk management in case of health threats

For competent authorities • Harmonisation of the implementation of law and procedures in cooperation with other information systems (Customs, RASFF)

• Administrative simplification for competent authorities • Better cooperation between competent authorities thanks to the multilingual

application• Fight against fraud

For animals • Enhanced controls leading to a better animal welfare and animal health

For plants • Better traceability to avoid propagating plant pests in the EU

VI. Facts and figures• Compulsory for EU countries since 01 January 2005, voluntary for non-EU countries• Multilingual: 35 languages

23 EU official languages plus Albanian, Bosnian, Chinese, Icelandic, Indonesian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Korean, Russian, Serbian, Turkish and Vietnamese

• Statistics automation and electronic transmission of information• Number of active users in 2014: 29.100

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• Number of non-EU officially listed establishments (in 2014): 19.715• Daily, around 1.000.000 electronic notifications registered• Number of registered consignments (in 2014): 1.544.617

• Dedicated Helpdesk 1 able to guide TRACES users in different areas• Staff: the TRACES team in the Animal Health unit, the TRACES IT and Helpdesk in the Information Systems unit of

DG SANTE• Dedicated bimonthly newsletter with more than 6.350 subscribers (September 2014)• 56 countries visited to deliver 71 training sessions and workshops worldwide since 2007 under the “Better

Training For Safer Food” (BTSF) programme

1 The TRACES helpdesk available at: ‘sante-traces@ec.europa.eu’ or + 32 2 297 63 50

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• 6 websites

Europa information website http://ec.europa.eu/traces/

Online production application https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sanco/traces/

Online training application https://webgate.training.ec.europa.eu/sanco/traces/

TRACES Toolkit https://circabc.europa.eu/w/browse/ac0bd3d2-66ae-4234-b09c-a3fa9854acfd

TRACES Prezi website https://prezi.com/user/TRACES/

• 28 EU countries + 4 EFTA countries + 41 non-EU countries

Europe Bosnia-Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Serbia, Kosovo, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

America Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Saint Pierre et Miquelon, Uruguay, Ecuador, Falkland Islands, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, USA

Oceania New Caledonia, New Zealand, French Polynesia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea

Africa Morocco, Benin, Mauritius, Senegal, Mayotte, Madagascar, Seychelles, Mauritania, Cape Verde, Kenya, Tunisia, South Africa, Algeria, Namibia, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Tanzania

Asia Israel, Indonesia, Philippines

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VII. Policies linked to TRACES

Animal health Animal welfare

Public health Food safety

Consumer protection International trade

Anti-fraud Internal market

Digital agenda Taxation and customs

Plant health

VIII. Future• A single sanitary window for animals, products of animal origin, food and feed of non-animal origin, plants, seeds

and propagating materials.• An electronic certification system to improve the data security and facilitate the trade exchange in the EU, and

non-EU countries with the introduction of the digital signature. • Central risk management system.

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T RAde Control and Expert System

(TRACES )is a management tool for tracking movements of animals, products of animal origin from both outside and within the European Union. It also covers imports to the European Union of feed and food of non-animal origin as well as plants, seeds and propagating materials.

TRACES aims to improve the relationship between the private and public sectors, and to strengthen cooperation between EU parties. It aims to facilitate trade, to enhance the safety of the food chain and to protect animal health.

This system consolidates and simplifies the existing systems. It is a major innovation in improving the management of animal diseases and reducing the administrative burden on economic operators and competent authorities.

Dr Didier CARTONHead of the TRACES Sector

For more informationTRACES Sector

DG Health and Food SafetyB232 03/057

B-1049 BrusselsTel: +32 2 297 63 50

E-mail: sante-traces@ec.europa.euhttp://ec.europa.eu/traces/

http://prezi.com/user/TRACES/

This information sheet is intended for TRACES users. You can find this document and download it at:

https://circabc.europa.eu/w/browse/ac0bd3d2-66ae-4234-b09c-a3fa9854acfd