E-certification
Exporting and importing companies have major interests in a rapid and predictable passage of their shipments at the border. The globalization of production and the growing number of "just in time" deliveries make this interest even larger. On the other hand, there is allso a growing interest for the government actions at the border. Security is one of the reasons of this growing interest, but also the growing risks to health that are hidden in shipments (both human, animal and plant).
Both developments combined, force the government to innovations in their risk assessments and inspections. One of those innovations is the digitization of business documents. If the government already has the digital information of shipments before this arrives, a large part of the risk analysis and administrative inspections already can be executed before the shipment arrives. And inspections can be focused on actual risks.
The veterinary and phytosanitary export certificates are important documents for the border inspections. When they are available digitally, and when they are exchanged directly between the Authority in the country of origin and the Authority in the country of destination fraud can be prevented and the inspections improved.
In the Netherlands automated systems are available for Import, able to recieve electronic certificates from third countries. And automated system for Export is implemented now. This system is able to produce electronic certificates (XML in the UN-CEFACT-standard) for the Authority in the country of destination.