SPS certificates are part of the non-customs regulatory documents exchanged in an international agro-food trade transaction. As for their physical equivalents, electronic official certificates involving SPS and related assurances are issued by the relevant competent authority of the exporting country to attest that agricultural consignments are free of pests and diseases and therefore safe to import.
This annex summarises findings from OECD work on the use of electronic SPS certificates (Laget and Deuss, 2025[30]), focusing on the role of regulatory and technical interoperability.
As regards regulatory interoperability, the three international SPS standard-setting organisations, the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex) for food products, the FAO International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) for plants and plants products, and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) for animals and animal products are the ones that provide guidelines to standardise the format and data contents of physical SPS certificates. In practice, a paper certificate is issued to the exporter by its competent authority based on a prescribed format, who then sends it to the importer for presentation to the competent authority of the importing country. The document certifies that the animals, plants or derived products declared in the consignment have been found free from pests and diseases after inspection and comply with the SPS measures of the importing countries.
As regards technical interoperability, the exchange of SPS certificates electronically relies on the following:
1. Developing and adopting international standards for the exchange of information
UN/CEFACT has developed the e-CERT standard, which provides a structured format for electronic SPS certificates. This solution is reflecting established business processes that operate in accordance with international SPS standards and bilateral agreements made by government regulators.
The e-CERT standard is accessible free of charge on the UNECE-UN/CEFACT website and includes three elements. The first element is a Business Requirement Specification (BRS) or Business Process Model, which explains the business processes that are supported by the e-CERT standard. It is a visual representation (using flowcharts) that illustrates how various tasks are carried out by government inspection and quarantine authorities involved in cross-border clearance activities to achieve the electronic exchange of export certificate data. The BRS features some key elements such as: tasks or steps that make up the process and what need to be done to achieve the electronic exchange of export certificate data, sequences that represent the order in which tasks are performed and showing the flow of the process form start to finish, responsibilities that identify who is accountable for each task, inputs and outputs that identify as data required to initiate and then complete a given task, decisions points that indicate where decisions need to be made and the different paths that may be followed based on specific conditions.
The second element of e-CERT is a Data Requirement Specification (RSM), which transforms the government-to-government electronic certification business requirements elaborated in the BRS document into a technical requirement specification for the exchange of SPS export certification data. It is a data model of the electronic message and explains the data fields used in the message. There are five components in the electronic certificate that are required to verify compliance with agreed SPS requirements. The Certificate Header comprises base information relating to the whole consignment and is primarily used for identification, traceability and authentication. The Certificate Transport identifies the main carriage for this consignment, including routing details. The Certificate Product identifies individual agricultural commodity items included in this consignment and may be used by the border control authority to determine the level of inspection required at the point of entry. The Certificate Approval provides authentication of the certificate and details of the certifying officer. The Withdrawal/ Return/ Acknowledgement Document provides the revised status of the certificate, including date and reason for revision.
Finally, the e-CERT standard provides a third element that is a set of XML Schemas, which specify the structure of the messages for electronic exchange of the certificates. XML is the acronym for eXtensible Markup Language. It is an internationally recognised computer language. Its format is machine readable but can be easily converted to a more user-friendly format such as a PDF file. It is standardised to allow communication through the Internet between different computer systems. It is one of the most widely used computer languages for sharing structured information. To facilitate the exchange of electronic certificates between various competent authorities, a harmonised schema, codes and lists are needed to ensure that the receiving competent authority can read the message of the sending competent authority. E-CERT encourages the use of standardised terms, codes and text for the data elements associated with the XML message.
2. Clarifying the role of relevant border authorities
Under electronic certification, exporters and importers no longer transmit and submit the certificates. The SPS e-certificate circulates exclusively between the national competent authorities, either through a bilateral relationship or through a multilateral option provided by a Hub. This means that confirming the issuance of electronic certificates does not involve the transmission (i.e. mailing) of a physical SPS certificate but only the notification that the certificate has been issued and that the consignment is under way. When SPS e-certificates are issued by the competent authority of the exporting or re-exporting country, they are directly available to the competent authority of the importing country.
3. Set-up of information exchange platforms and coordination with national systems for trade
SPS certificates can currently be exchanged in two ways, using a bilateral government-to-government model or a multilateral single hub model.
The bilateral government-to-government (G2G) model was the first approach used to exchange SPS e-certificates. Under this model SPS e-certificates are directly exchanged between competent authorities via their national Single Windows for trade or more frequently via their electronic SPS certificate management systems.
The Single Hub model (G2HUB2G) is characterised by a single point exchange. The IPPC offers a solution to exchange phytosanitary certificates electronically under the ePhyto G2HUB2G model, currently used by 133 countries. In a Single Hub model, only one access agreement is required to send or receive e-certificates to and from all countries connected to the Hub. This is exemplified by the approach adopted by the United States regarding the use of the IPPC ePhyto Solution, which enables the exchange of e-phytos with over 100 countries. European Member countries are connected to the IPPC’s Hub through the European Commission’s Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES-NT), which serves as a platform for managing SPS certification. The eIDAS regulation No 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions, passed in 2014, requires electronic signatures on SPS e-certificates. The scope and necessary conditions of legally binding electronic signatures (such as the identification of third-party certified e-signature providers) imply that European Member countries only receive e-certificates with a limited number of third countries and highlights the interlinkages between the digital tools for facilitating trade at the border and the overall framework for electronic transactions.