VIDEO: Online tracking tool for Africa-EU freight movements

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Traces, from the European Commission, is a free online management tool that tracks the movements of live animals, animal products, products of animal origin, animal by-products, food, feed and plants imported from places outside the European Union, such as Africa, and traded through the EU Member States.

It is used in over 70 countries, the application is available in 33 languages and so far has 25,000 registered users.

In 2013, Europe imported €4.35 million of food and live animals from West Africa and exported €3.32 million of food and live animals to the region. West African countries account for 40 percent of all trade between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific region

TRACES benefits:

• Traceability of trade movements in the EU and from non-EU countries
• Exchange of information: At each stage of the certification process, business users and competent authorities receive automatic notifications via TRACES and may get in contact with each other
• Risk management in case of health threats
• Trade facilitation and speeding up administrative procedures
• Combatting fraud and the detection of fake certificates

The 4 minute video animation explains how TRACES work and how the tool contributes to the reduction of the impact of disease outbreaks and brings a quick response to any sanitary alert, for a the better protection of consumers, livestock and plants. This video is available in English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish.

TRACES strengthens the cooperation with the EU partners, facilitates the trade, simplifying the administrative procedures, improves the risk management of health threats and enhances the safety of the food chain and animal health. TRACES marks a major leap forward in tracking the movements of livestock and produce, monitoring animal diseases, and combating food fraud.

For more information, please visit: www.ec.europa.eu/traces