Encouragement for the IPPC Community to participate actively in the STDF Seminar on Electronic SPS Certification

Electronic certification, ePhyto specifically, is increasingly important to the future of phytosanitary certification in the IPPC Community. For this reason the IPPC needs to actively engage on electronic certification to ensure a common understanding and create awareness of the benefits of such certification. Such an occasion is the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) Seminar on Electronic SPS Certification on 28 June 2016 at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. The overall objective of the Seminar is to raise awareness of the opportunities and the challenges related to the implementation of electronic SPS certification systems, mainly in developing countries. The IPPC Secretariat will be presenting at the seminar on ePhyto and this is expected to generate increased awareness of this initiative (including the ePhyto pilot project) and improve communications amongst stakeholders on ePhyto.

The Seminar aims to identify good practices and consider avenues for future action to support the smooth transition from paper based to automated SPS controls systems. To achieve this, the seminar will: - review existing international SPS and electronic data exchange standards and consider outstanding standard-setting gaps; - review relevant initiatives aiming to streamline the automation of trade procedures and facilitate implementation of paperless trade to identify synergies and good practice; and - present countries experiences in the area of exchange of electronic SPS certificates, share lessons learned, discuss challenges faced and consider capacity building needs for developing countries.

Participation in the Seminar is subject to prior registration which is now open until 30 May 2016. To get more information and register go to http://www.standardsfacility.org/STDF-eCert-Seminar.