Date of issue: 20 April 2022
Date of effect: Immediate
Reference Number: MAA2022-06
Related MAAs: 2021-30, 2021-33, 2021-42, 2021-53, 2021-47, 2021-49, 2022-01
Attention:
- Industries—Industry bodies – Dairy Australia – Infant Nutrition Council – Dairy Export Industry Consultative Committee
- Dairy Export establishments
- Exporters
- Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment —central and regional offices
Purpose
To notify exporters of the commencement of electronic certification (eCert) which is a paperless exchange of health certificates for the export of milk and milk products. Exporters should expect changes in certificate outputs.
Summary of key points
- From 29 April 2022, health certificates for milk and milk products exported to the European Union (EU) will be issued via the EU Trade Control and Export System (TRACES-NT) as an eCert. This will replace printed paper certificates currently required to export these products to the EU.
Request for Export (REX)
- The Request for Export (REX) process will change for exporters. You will now need to provide Combined Nomenclature (CN) Code, consignee TRACES ID and select an approved EU border inspection port.
- You will also be required to enter a TRACES Consignee ID within the consignee field of the REX. Your importer should provide you the correct TRACES Consignee ID.
- Please note that all REXs must be completed (COMP) and have the extract issued for the eCert to be sent to the EU.
- For record keeping and commercial purposes only, an extract of the information transmitted by eCert will be printed. The eCert extract will not be accepted by the EU border control post for clearance.
- You will be able to remote print your extract. If you have already been set up to remote print you can select this when raising your REX. If you would like further information or wish to obtain an application form to register for remote print, please contact foodexports@aff.gov.au.
Check your EU TRACES-NT ID
- For an eCert to be lodged successfully, exporters and the registered establishment(s) that prepared the goods for export must have a valid TRACES-NT ID for exporting goods to the EU.
- Exporter’s details in TRACES-NT should also be accurately reflected in your NEXDOC account. This includes checking the address and confirming that there are no duplicates on the TRACES-NT system.
- Instructions to update your TRACES-NT ID number in NEXDOC are provided in the user guide ‘NEXDOC Add EU TRACES ID’. New exporters must include this in their registration application.
- Please note this does not affect your establishment registration details in the department’s establishment register (ER) or the EU listing of establishments recorded in TRACES-NT. If you become aware of any problems with the listing of an establishment, please contact Exportestablishment@aff.gov.au with a description of the problem.
- For help with TRACES-NT contact the department via foodexportdocumentation@awe.gov.au.
CN code
- The EU uses the Combined Nomenclature (CN) to categorise commodities for tariff purposes. This is the EU’s eight-digit coding system which is aligned with the Harmonised System (HS) codes with further EU sub-categories.
- You will be required to enter an appropriate CN code into the CN Code field for each product line of the REX.
Place of destination
- The approval number (identifier) of the EU place of destination must now be provided in the Approval number tab within the REX.
- Exporters can use their EU TRACES-NT ID to search their records and confirm the identifier.
- The country of destination must also match the address of the place of destination (for example if the consignment will be unloaded at a dry store in Germany, then Germany should be listed as the country of destination in the REX).
Changes to template names
- Certificate templates have been re-named due to the move to eCert. The new eCert extract name is provided in the following table:
| Commodity | Previous template name | eCert extract name |
|---|---|---|
| For the export of milk and milk products (intended for human consumption) | ZDENH1 | EUEXH1 |
| For the export of milk and milk products (not for human consumption) | ZDENS1 | EUEXS1 |
- Transit certificates will not move onto eCert and will remain paper based. The dairy transit certificate is ZDEUHT.
Countries included in the move to eCert
- The eCert arrangement extends to:
- countries in the EU (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden).
- countries in the EU single market (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland).
- Overseas territories of France (Reunion, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte).
- Northern Ireland will not be moving to eCert and will continue to use EU paper certificates. Please contact foodexports@awe.gov.au if you intend to export to Northern Ireland.
- The Manual of Importing Country Requirements (Micor) will be updated to reflect this market access advice. We encourage users of Micor to subscribe to the Micor update service for a commodity-specific email that lists changes that have been made in the preceding week.
- The department encourages all exporters to work with their importer to ensure that product meets the current importing country requirements.
Further information
Contact ExportStandards@awe.gov.au if you have any queries.
The information provided in this advice is current at the time of writing and is intended for use as guidance only and should not be taken as definitive or exhaustive. The Commonwealth endeavours to keep information current and accurate, however, it may be subject to change without notice. Exporters are encouraged to verify these details with their importers prior to undertaking production/exports. The Commonwealth will not accept liability for any loss resulting from reliance on information contained in this notice.