Joint Media Release
Minister for Trade, Mark Vaile, and the Minister for Agriculture,
Fisheries and Forestry, Warren Truss
Thursday, 31 October 2002
APEC Adopts Electronic Quarantine and Health Certificates
Australian agricultural exporters will benefit from a more secure
and cost-effective way of doing business with the introduction of
an electronic quarantine and health certificate system, Trade Minister
Mark Vaile and Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister Warren
Truss said today.
Following agreement by Ministers at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
Joint Ministerial Meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico, Mr Vaile said the
new web-based system, E-Cert, adopted by APEC Ministers would replace
paper certificates used to clear the export and import of agricultural
products.
"E-Cert is good news for Australian agricultural exporters. Electronic
certification offers a cheaper, faster and simpler system. It is
expected to reduce the documentation costs of Australia's agricultural
exporters by about five per cent, Mr Vaile said.
"E-Cert is more secure as the data is transmitted directly between
government agencies, eliminating the possibility of tampering with
or falsification of data. The system also increases the protection
of Australia's borders from quarantine threats and raises the level
of public health and food safety," Mr Truss said.
Australia, Canada, the United States and New Zealand will introduce
the system by mid-2003. Korea, Chinese Taipei, Malaysia, Singapore,
Mexico, Thailand and Indonesia are expected to consider joining by
the end of 2003.
Australia and New Zealand have worked together to streamline their
export documentation systems to produce a standardised electronic
messaging approach - the basis for the E-Cert initiative in APEC.
E-Cert provides importing economies with two options for accepting
health and quarantine (sanitary and phytosanitary) certification electronically.
Economies with developed information technology systems will be able
to integrate messages for automated processing. Less-developed economies
will be able to interactively view certificates on-line via a secure
web-site and download or print a hard copy of the certification data.
Further information can be downloaded from: http://www.aqis.gov.au.
Media Inquiries: Tim Langmead (Mr Truss's office) 02 6277 7520 |
Andrew Ethell (Mr Vaile's office) 02 6277 7420
Local Date:
Friday, 21-Nov-2008 16:02:05 EST
