The process
European Union legislation requires consignments of animals, animal products, certain food and feed of non-animal origin and the majority of plants to be accompanied by official certificates, attesting compliance with the applicable requirements.
When such consignments are imported into the EU or traded within the EU single market, TRACES supports the issuing of official certificates and the recording of official controls and route planning, quickly and efficiently online.
National authorities and businesses complete official certificates and documents online in TRACES and the control authorities at EU borders or at the final destination check the consignments and their accompanying documents to allow them to enter or move through the EU.
This way, the control authorities at EU borders or at the place of destination are pre-notified of the arrival of a consignment and therefore can plan their controls e.g., in the case of the transport of live animals further checks and controls regarding animal welfare can be performed and recorded.
Feedback on the final decision taken on the consignment following the controls performed is available to the parties concerned.
With its user-friendly interface, TRACES allows for the interaction between the private sector and authorities, of both EU and non-EU countries, and significantly reduces the administrative burden for all the involved parties, working on the same platform.
Benefits of using TRACES
- Speeds up the administrative procedures because businesses operate on the same platform as their authorities while also benefiting from a cloning tool which allows for the transformation of certificates into entry documents;
- Provides access to the latest certificate models in accordance with EU legislation or based on certificates negotiated between trading partners;
- Enables monitoring of the certification process, including information on the decision taken on consignments by authorities.
- Provides better transparency and traceability in the agri-food supply chain;
- Increases consumer confidence in the overall food safety and quality as the system facilitates detecting cases of food fraud and fraudulent certificates;
- Supports a quick response in case of risks to animal, public and plant health originating from the agri-food chain.
- Facilitates online certification and the option of electronic signature, which is offered for free by the European Commission to users from both EU and non-EU countries;
- Ensures a degree of uniformity at EU level with regard to the performance of official controls along the agri-food chain;
- Simplifies administrative procedures and contributes to the efficient performance of official controls by the different responsible authorities;
- Supports the determination, modification, and application of the uniform minimum frequency of official controls according to the categories of animals or goods concerned;
- Harmonises the implementation of EU legislation and requirements in cooperation and exchange of information with other information systems (e.g., customs IT systems, iRASFF);
- Facilitates international cooperation and exchange of information between competent authorities, including decisions taken on consignments;
- Helps to trace operators’ past records and identify possible violations to the rules including those perpetrated through fraudulent or deceptive practices.
- Helps to prevent or reduce to a minimum any delay between the loading of the animals and their departure, or during the transport leading to an increased care towards animal welfare and animal health;
- Ensures traceability of animals to prevent introduction and spread of transmissible animal diseases;
- Ensures an efficient organisation and performance of the controls of animal diseases presenting a risk to animal or public health.
- Ensures traceability to help prevent, minimise, or mitigate the risks to public or animal health arising from those products;
- Supports the performance of official controls to respond to recognised or specific hazards and risks to human and animal health.
- Ensures traceability to avoid introducing plant pests and prohibited plants in the EU;
- Supports efforts for the control of plant pests for which measures are in place to prevent their introduction into and spread within the entire EU territory;
- Helps to ensure effective and timely action is taken where a plant pest is found to be present or suspected of being present.
- Supports measures requiring a temporary increase of official controls and special import conditions applied to goods presenting a risk to public health;
- Facilitates access to information on decisions taken on consignments and appropriate corrective actions to be applied by competent authorities.
Other features of TRACES
Qlik Sense – analytics tool
Qlik Sense is the statistical tool integrated with TRACES and allowing for the extraction of valuable data regarding intra-Union trade, imports, and exports which are retrieved from the official documents and certificates issued inside TRACES. TRACES users linked to EU and non-EU authorities have access to data relevant to their respective countries and area of responsibility.
The application of dynamic and flexible filtering allows users to narrow their search to certain commodities, countries, periods, etc. and visualise it in interactive figures.
NB: Qlik Sense replaced QlikView as of 1st January 2024.