Electronic veterinary certification

WOAH Data Models for Electronic Certification

International veterinary certificates describing the relevant animal health and public health requirements of the importing country should assure that the exported commodities comply with the relevant sanitary measures of the WOAH International Standards to ensure safe international trade.

Section 5 of the WOAH Terrestrial Animal Health Code and the Aquatic Animal Health Code includes a range of model veterinary certificates to facilitate consistent documentation for international trade. These models certificates serve as the basis for Members to negotiate certificates for international trade of animals and animal products and to facilitate safe trade.

Increasingly electronic certification is being used to provide the electronic exchange of data sent directly from the Competent Authority of the exporting country to the Competent Authority of the importing country. The electronic exchange of veterinary certificates can benefit both exporting and importing countries through enhanced efficiency gains, improved transparency, and traceability, as well as improved risk management. However, the policy levers associated with e-veterinary certification systems are complex and include trade policies, as well as regulatory policies, investment policies, and animal health and public health policies.

To assist WOAH Members to adopt e-veterinary certification, WOAH convened a group of experts to develop reference data models for the WOAH model which are critical information to assist Members in their potential use of e-veterinary certification. These reference data models and guidance are available here:

In addition, WOAH is in the process of revising relevant WOAH Standards on certification to include more details about e-veterinary certification. Once finalised, these revised standards together with the reference data models will support Members to implement e-veterinary certification.

Background

Following consideration of the recommendations made in the WTO Standards Trade Development Facility (STDF) project on the ‘Development of a framework to facilitate e-veterinary certification for international trade on the basis of a single window system’ report (2020), WOAH agreed to develop Reference data models and to revise relevant chapters in the Aquatic Code and Terrestrial Code to include more information on electronic veterinary certification. These developments will also align WOAH standards with those of Codex.

Click here   to access the final report of this project.