The national government led the Regional Workshop on Electronic Phytosanitary Certification (ePhyto), which took place at the San Martín Palace in Buenos Aires from September 11 to 13, within the framework of the international project called “ePhyto Solution”.
Latin America and Southeast Asia
"It was a very important meeting where we explained how we have been working with electronic phytosanitary certificates to all countries in the Latin American region and to several countries in Southeast Asia to improve the trade of our products in a digital, easy, transparent and reliable way for all consumers," explained the president of Senasa, Ricardo Negri at the close of the event.
Private sector
“The next step is to invite the private sector to start using this tool which is already developed and in operation among the most important agricultural countries to generate business and much more employment," added Negri.
In this regard, the Vice President of Senasa, Guillermo Rossi, said that "the role of the electronic phytosanitary certificate is to facilitate trade through safer and faster certificates. Argentina took the issue as strategic and replicable to other areas of certification such as animal health and food safety.. "
“Today we already have six countries that are exchanging the first electronic certificates with all the advantages that this implies, facilitating trade, providing security for shipments, also being a support that a country gives so that a product is exported free of pests to another country, maintaining direct communication between them without being lost or falsified those documents,” Rossi clarified.
Public-Private
“It is important to highlight the great advantage of exchanging these certificates through the platform, harmonized in the International Plant Protection Convention, so that the impact on trade is greater. The next step is to value the concrete impact of the certificate, coordinated with public-private work., concluded the vice president of Senasa.
Benefits
- Potential reduction in fraudulent certificates
- Improves security in the transmission of certificates compared to paper certificates
- Efficiencies in the arrival and clearance of plants and plant products at the point of entry
- Costs reduction
- Possibility of linking with the World Customs Organization's "Single Window" initiative and harmonizing codes and processes; and use of harmonized international standards for electronic commerce between governments.
Aduana News is the first Argentine customs newspaper to launch its digital version. With 20 years of experience, its publications and initiatives aim to provide the most relevant knowledge on customs issues in order to contribute to safe trade in the region.
