European Commission TRACES Welcomed to the IPPC ePhyto Solution

Brussels, 12 May 2020. The European Commission (EC) announced today that the TRACES system, maintained as the single contact point for connection to the IPPC ePhyto Hub for all Member States of the European Union, is now able to communicate with the IPPC ePhyto Hub to receive and process electronic data from phytosanitary certificates transmitted by non-EC countries through the IPPC ePhyto Hub. The first ePhytos came through the system shortly after midnight.

The EC is encouraging countries to access the IPPC ePhyto facility to transmit all data from Phytosanitary Certificates for exports of plants or regulated plant products to any of the Member States of the European Union. Later this year, the TRACES-NT system will also be able to send export PCs to the ePhyto Hub.

The IPPC Secretary Jingyuan Xia noted that “this is a fantastic achievement by one of the IPPC’s most important partners. During the current time of the Covid-19 Crisis, this development by the EC reflects the forward thinking needed to help all IPPC Contracting Parties move towards facilitating faster, but safer trade in plants and plant products. I am very proud of the work being done in IPPC ePhyto solution. The IPPC Secretariat is doing all it can to bring our developing country members on board through the development of online training (coming very soon) and direct assistance through video training.”