Customs clearance for animals and animal products
The Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES) is an online system for health certification and tracking consignments of animals or animal products coming into or out of the UK.
Prepare for Brexit
The rules for moving animals and animal products will change if there’s a no-deal Brexit. Get ready if you’re:
Current rules on international trade
If you trade internationally in animals and certain animal products, you need to follow particular animal health regulations. While these products are traded freely within the EU, responsibility lies with each member state to ensure that products meet the common animal and public health standards.
The Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES) is a web-based system run by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Consumer Protection. It aims to make the paperwork for trading in animals and animal products easier by generating the necessary documents and sending copies to the appropriate authorities inland and abroad, saving traders time and effort.
The system allows traders to obtain export health certificates and movement notifications of their dispatches. It helps the authorities to meet health regulations and traders’ needs.
What TRACES does
If you trade internationally in animals or certain animal products, the documentation you need to submit is processed through TRACES.
EU documentation processed through TRACES
If you buy certain animal products, live animals or germplasm from within the EU or trade in them with another EU country, you need a health certificate signed by a government-approved official veterinarian or, for some animal products, commercial documentation. The health certificates, known as Intra Trade Animal Health Certificates (ITAHCs), are issued through TRACES and Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) in Carlisle.
Find guidance on how to complete an ITAHC.
Importers may also need a Common Veterinary Entry Document (CVED), which gives a veterinary assessment of live animals or products.
For trade with another EU member state, you or your agent must provide details of the consignment to your local APHA office. APHA provides details of the veterinary assessment on the consignment and creates the certificate. Imports are notified through TRACES and details of the ITAHC are also entered on the system.
Find contact details for your local APHA office.
Non-EU documentation processed through TRACES
If you trade in animals or certain animal products from outside the EU, you will need to notify the Border Inspection Post (BIP) by completing documentation on the TRACES system. Certain non-EU countries including Switzerland, Chile and New Zealand access health certificates for import into the EU and submit them electronically through TRACES.
Animals and animal products cleared through TRACES
The system covers several types of animal and animal product, including:
- germplasm, for example semen, ova and embryos of cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and horses
- types of poultry, such as hatching eggs, day-old chicks, poultry for restocking game supplies and birds for breeding, production and slaughter
- live animals, for example horses, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, parrots, hares and certain species of non-domestic ungulates
- primates
- carnivores, for example dogs and cats (excluding accompanied PETS-compliant animals)
If you import products of animal origin from outside the EU, you must notify the BIP that goods are arriving by completing part I of a CVED on TRACES.
When you complete and submit this document online, you will be issued a unique CVED reference number. You must provide this number to customs authorities to demonstrate that you have notified the BIP and to allow subsequent release.
Exports to non-EU member states (and some exports to Switzerland and Norway) are processed through a different system called CENTAUR (Certification of Exports, Notification of Trade and Assessment of Underlying Risk), but all enquiries and applications to export should be directed to APHA.
TRACES is not yet able to handle health certificates issued by countries outside the EU. You will need to submit these documents in hard-copy form to the BIP.
If for any reason you cannot notify the BIP of the arrival of the goods using TRACES, you must send a copy of a completed CVED, part I, to the BIP. If you do not pre-notify the BIP of the arrival of the goods, then the goods might be rejected for import. If the goods are rejected, you will have to have them destroyed or returned to the country of origin at your own expense.
Registering for TRACES
You need to register to use TRACES. Your single registration on TRACES will be either for trading within the EU or for importing from non-EU countries. You cannot register for both with the same email address.
There’s no charge for using the system. If your business is a large company with several sites, you may have to register with the relevant APHA office in each of your branch areas.
Find contact details for your local APHA office.
EU imports
You can register for TRACES online.
If you want to trade within the EU, you should fill out the fields for Competent Authority, which in the UK is the local APHA office.
Once your registration to trade with other EU countries has been confirmed, you can then apply for an ITAHC via the TRACES website.
Non-EU imports
If you want to import from outside the EU you should fill out the fields for BIP.
Once your registration as an importer of non-EU goods has been confirmed you can then apply for a Common Veterinary Entry Document via the TRACES website.
A single registration with a BIP allows you to import via any BIP.
Using TRACES
If you trade in certain animal products, certain live animals or germplasm with a EU member state, you need an ITAHC.
Applying for an ITAHC
After registration for TRACES, you can apply to APHA for an ITAHC via the TRACES website. Complete part I of the ITAHC online, electronically sign it and then submit it to APHA. Allow at least 10 working days for the certificate to be issued to your Official Veterinarian (OV).
You can also apply for an ITAHC by manually completing a printed form and sending this through to APHA, who will put this into TRACES.
Action for OVs on completion of ITAHCs
You must fax or deliver a copy of the completed ITAHC and TRACES-CONF document to APHA in Carlisle the same day the ITAHC is signed. The fax number for APHA is 0208 0260 498.
To avoid delays, or the goods being seized or rejected, it’s important to get the right ITAHC for a consignment. Detailed guidance on how to certify the health certificates is given in the Notes for Guidance supplied with the ITAHC, as well as the checklist (where necessary) and the footnotes above the signature box.
Find guidance on how to complete an ITAHC.
How the authorities use TRACES
Veterinary authorities from the UK and abroad use TRACES to track the movement of consignments across Europe.
The system sends the ITAHC via TRACES as a notification to the destination authorities for each consignment.
For third-country (countries outside the EU) imports, the importer can use TRACES to notify the Border Inspection Post.
You will need to notify HMRC that veterinary checks have been completed for third-country imports or your customs entry will not be processed.
Contact
Defra helpline: 08459 33 55 77
Updates to this page
Last updated 23 August 2019 + show all updates
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Updated links about how the rules for moving animals and animal products will change if there’s a no-deal Brexit.
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Added information about new procedure for importing from the EU to the UK if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
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Added information for exporters about how to get an export health certificate if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
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Fixing references to specialist guides
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First published.