There is no restriction on who can apply for a Certificate of Export, but there are restrictions on some of the information the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) can provide to third parties, such as foreign governments, without approval from an authorising party.
Manufacturer letters of support
The APVMA does not publish the name and address of the manufacturers of chemical products or active constituents. A letter of support, or similar document, from an authorised representative of the manufacturing company, is required if the applicant is not the approved manufacturer of the product or active.
There is no specific format, the manufacturing company only needs to confirm the company authorises their details to be provided on the proposed certificate. The details to be listed can be provided in one letter for a number of applications.
GMP authorisation
Certificates of Manufacture (Approved GMP) and Certificates of Export and Manufacture (Approved GMP) contain information about a manufacturer’s APVMA manufacturing license or audit reports. This information is confidential commercial information (CCI).
The release of CCI on a certificate must be authorised by the manufacturing company’s Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) contact. This can be done by the inclusion of a letter of authorisation with the certificate application.
Please note that a manufacturer may have 2 different contacts: one for the manufacturing process and the other for GMP processes. In these situations, two letters of support will be required for the certificate application.
The application form
The online application form will require applicants to enter information into the fields and this information will be dependent on the type of certificate being requested.
Depending on the certificate, applicants will need to provide their contact details as well as details of the product registration, active constituent approval, the manufacturer and the chemical formulations. Applicants should also list the number of copies being requested and the country of import.
Additional information can be included on the certificate, for example, multiple manufacturers or a different certificate name. Applicants can detail the requested information in the free text ‘comments’ field on the last page of the application.
Applicants can confirm more specific requests by writing to the APVMA at certificatesofexport@apvma.gov.au.