Organics and TRACES NT

Notification and endorsement of all Organic consignments must be via TRACES NT from 19th October 2017. Please note that we have been advised by DEFRA following an EU edict that Certificates of Inspection created after 20th October 2017 must be made using the TRACES NT platform otherwise they must be rejected by the point of entry.

Commission Implementing Regulation 2016/1842 introduces the electronic Certificate of Inspection (CoI) requirements via TRACES NT. Electronic CoIs will be the method of pre-notification and endorsement from 19 October 2017. CoIs that have been fully digitally signed by the control body/authority do not need to be printed. CoIs that have not been digitally signed by the control body/authority shall be printed, stamped and hand signed, and the original submitted to Port Health.

Registration of operators (importers/persons responsible for the load) on TRACES NT

Registration/validation on TRACES NT (note this a different platform to regular or classic TRACES used for CEDs/CVEDs) may be done by accessing TRACES NT Login.
Guidance on access to the system and user guidance on the registration and validation process can be found here.

Validation as an operator (importer) on TRACES NT

The competent authorities at the point of entry (Port Health Authorities) are not tasked with registration and validation of importers as per conventional TRACES – this has to be done by an approved UK organic control body.
It is necessary to notify your Control Body after TRACES NT (ECAS) registration as validation of importers is done by Control Bodies. UK importers are required to be associated with one of these bodies to enable access to the system.
The CoI will be completed at origin with input from the organic importer before signing in box 18 and submission at the point of entry/clearance.

Validation as an operator (agent/person responsible for the load)

Validation of operators (person responsible for the load) is done by the port/point of entry (from 17.10.17). Full details of the organisations and persons using the system will be required. There are two stages to the validation – validation as an operator (person responsible for the load) and validation as a user. The control authority at the point of entry needs to complete both these tasks otherwise a message ‘the roles you requested are being reviewed’ will appear. Note there is generally a 24 hour time delay between validation and visibility by the agent/person responsible for the load on the TRACES NT system.
Persons responsible for the load will need to indicate all associated ports/points of entry they will be arranging imports at on the TRACES NT system.
Importers will be required to choose from the list of validated operators (persons responsible for the load) to enter details on the CoI.
The person responsible for the load generally will only enter information relating to the port of entry (CoI box 9) however clarification is pending regarding what information may be added by the agent/person responsible for the load.
The person responsible for the load field is optional on the CoI. Users linked to the operator entered in this field will have access to the CoI and will receive notifications about it. Where the importer is solely handling the consignment at the point of entry, no information is needed in the box ‘responsible for the load’.

Pre-notifications

A requirement of the legislation is that importers notify Port Health of the intended arrival of the organic consignment 24 hours in advance. This is usually by the submission of the Certificate of Inspection, however the following methods are accepted.

Faxing/emailing a copy of the electronic certificate of inspection and/or bill of lading, invoice and packing list (if the CoI as not been digitally signed by the control body/authority an original signed e-CoI will need to follow).
Completing a TRACES NT e-CoI entry* and submitting the original e-CoI, printed and hand signed with associated paperwork. Once operators are validated further details on the CoI may be completed and submitted – the CoI will then appear on the TRACES NT system with a status of Issuing body declaration signed.
TRACES NT CoI may be easily identified by the information in box 3 which has a unique serial number prefixed CoI and a quick reference box.

* Note that the country of clearance/point of entry must be completed to indicate Felixstowe and UK Border Control Post GB0021 (in Box 9) otherwise our staff will not be able to view the CoI on TRACES NT. It would be helpful if when completing box 17 of the CoI that the ETA date is added after the vessel name.

Currently we will not be aware that a CoI has been submitted on the TRACES NT system as there is no electronic notification system in place to point of entry of its existence.

Satisfactory checks

On satisfactory completion of the checks, consignments may be released for free circulation into the Community. The completed CoI will be verified and endorsed on TRACES NT, signed and returned (except for digitally signed CoIs). The TRACES NT system will indicate consignment verified when the CoI has been endorsed by Port Health. The signed original CoI/digitally endorsed CoI may then be used as evidence that the checks have been satisfactorily completed.

Note: There is a further stage of CoI completion by the first consignee following clearance at the point of entry indicated on the TRACES NT system which is indicated by a status of first consignee declaration signed when signed off/saved.