General export certificates for live animals, semen, embryos, hatching eggs and ovocytes
All exports of live animals, semen, embryos, hatching eggs and oocytes must be accompanied with a certificate which details the health requirements of the third country. Since live animals and germinal products are considered as a high risk commodity, bilateral certificates are often developed for this kind of trade. If a bilateral certificate exists for that product-country combination, trade will only be possible with that bilateral certificate.
Nevertheless in order to facilitate exports to third countries, the FASFC has developed general certificates for different products. The health conditions specified in general certificates are based on European legislation.
If there is no country-specific certificate model, a non-negotiated country-specific certificate or no specific requirements under "Certificates and company lists by country", this means that the FASFC is not aware of the requirements of this third country for the certification of the products in question. Where applicable, the general certificate may be issued at the exporter's risk. The operator must always verify that the certificate model that will be used complies with the requirements of the competent government of the third country of destination. For this purpose, the Belgian operator may contact the competent authority of the third country, for example via his potential customer or regional export promotion organisations. If the third country of destination has more specific requirements, the operator must submit it to the certifying agent so that a country-specific certificate can be drawn up.
Moreover, the general certificates are provided with a box in which additional declarations can be added, as long as proof can be demonstrated that these are indeed required by the competent authority of the third country of destination.
The general certificate for the export of live animals is made up of two parts:
- Part 1 includes information relating to the identity of the parties involved and the animals concerned in the shipment;
- Part 2 includes information relating to the health declarations.