Lesson 3: Phytosanitary Systems
Topic 3: Phytosanitary Certification
An export certification system is the infrastructure that allows a country’s NPPO to ensure that agricultural goods meet a foreign country’s phytosanitary entry requirements. This facilitates safe trade of plant-based goods.
Objectives:
- Recall goal of a phytosanitary certification system.
Why do countries create and maintain a certification system for export? Countries build and maintain export certification systems to expedite trade and to reduce risk of exporting plant pests and diseases. Without a robust certification system and a trustworthy phytosanitary certificate, exporting goods to foreign markets is often a slow or even impossible endeavor. Exports often fail without an established certification system because every country has complex and constantly changing circumstances. Not many individual exporters have the resources or expertise to navigate such complexity or ascertain all the requirements they need to fulfill.
The complexity of the phytosanitary certification process depends on the complexity of the importing country’s requirements. In some cases, the only requirement is inspection at the port of departure. In other cases, pre-harvest and post-harvest actions throughout the entire production process must be verified. The phytosanitary certificate ensures that all phytosanitary measures required by the importing country, no matter how simple or how complex, have been carried out and have been verified by the NPPO or its authorized entities. According to ISPM 7, the IPPC requires that the NPPO, or its authorized non-governmental personnel, have the sole responsibility and authority to issue phytosanitary certificates. This reduces the possibility of mistakes and/or fraud.
ISPM 12 outlines a simple four-step process to create and issue a phytosanitary certificate. Please review the steps below.
The future of phytosanitary certification
Even in this age of mobile technology, most phytosanitary certificates are still pen and paper copies. This can be slow and sluggish, and efforts are being made to innovate to turn certification into a paperless, electronic process. There is broad agreement within the international community that a paperless system would expedite trade and lower certification costs to customers. However, the process of developing a single electronic system that will work for NPPOs in all countries around the world will be a lengthy process.
Phytosanitary certification is necessary for international trade. A certificate ensures that the exporting country understands, and has complied with, the plant health requirements of the importing country for that specific consignment.
To continue, select Topic 4 from the Lessons menu above or click here.