TRACES.NT

TRACES, which stands for TRAde Control and Expert System, is a free, multilingual information tool managed by the European Commission to facilitate exchanges between economic operators and administrations of Member States.

It is used to centralize, in one database, requests for veterinary health certificates for live animals and import declarations for goods  - Common Veterinary Entry Documents (CVED) or Common Entry Documents (CED) - in order to monitor the health of animals, reinforce food safety and facilitate trade between EU Member States or with third countries that use the system.

It also allows the control authorities of the different Member States to track goods, facilitate controls, and fight against fraud and protect public and animal health.

The new release of the tool called TRACES.NT is used to centralize Certificates Of Inspection for organic products (COI), phytosanitary certificates, FLEGT licenses and Common Health Entry Documents for Plants and Plant products (CHED-PP).

Related products

Animals and animal products, some foodstuffs, feed and food contact materials, as well as plants, plant products and organic products imported on the European territory or being moved within the intra-Community market must, in some cases, be registered in the TRACES.NT system.

The table below indicates the cases in which notification in TRACES.NT is required in Luxembourg:

Getting started

Economic operators first request access to the TRACES NT system from the competent authority according to their area of activity.

In Luxembourg, the request for access is made to the Administration of Veterinary Services, Administration of Agricultural Technical Services or the Food Safety Unit according to the area of activity.

Presently, a company that is active in different areas must request access from each of the competent authorities.

User guides, videos and templates of official documents are available on a single access portal: the TRACES toolkit.

Operation

Once registered, an operator wishing to transport goods must complete an electronic form in a single format that contains all appropriate information concerning the animal or the product, the destination and any stages. Import notification must be made 24 hours prior to the arrival of the goods.

The operator may also register the accompanying documents of the goods in TRACES.NT.  These documents will then be available for documentary control by the competent authority.

In the case of import or transit of animals or animal products from a third country, the veterinarian of the Border Inspection Post will perform the veterinary control and enter the result in the TRACES.NT system. In the case of approval, access to the EU territory will be authorized and a Common Veterinary Entry Document (CVED) will be issued.

In the case of import or transit of foodstuffs of non-animal origin from a third country, the agent at the designated point of entry will perform the control and enter the result in the TRACES.NT system. In the case of approval, the agent will authorize access to the European Union territory and issue a Common Entry Document (CED).

In the case of intra-Community movements of live animals, the competent authority will verify the contents of the form, will inspect the animals and will then either reject or approve the transport. In the case of approval, it will issue a health certificate and as necessary a road map. The operator can proceed with the transport only when the authorization has been received.

In the case of import or transit of plants or plant products from a third country, the ASTA will perform phytosanitary controls and enter the result in the TRACES.NT system. If the goods are compliant, the ASTA will authorize access to the European market from a phytosanitary point of view.

In the case of import and customs clearance in Luxembourg of organic products, the ASTA will verify the documents (the certificate of inspection for organic products called COI (Certificate of Inspection)) and the goods during an inspection procedure. The ASTA will enter the result in the TRACES.NT system. If the use of the organic label on imported products is proper, the ASTA will authorize its launch.

The TRACES information is sent to the competent authorities of the destination Member State, the central veterinary authority of the State(s) of transit and all appropriate control points. The information are then available during controls performed in route and/or at destination.