SUMMARY OF THE ACTIONS EXECUTED WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THE OVINE-CAPRINE PROJECT AIMING AT FACILITATING THE SIGNING OF THE CANADA-COLOMBIA VETERINARY HEALTH CERTIFICATE.

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SUMMARY OF THE ACTIONS EXECUTED WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THE OVINE-CAPRINE
PROJECT AIMING AT FACILITATING THE SIGNING OF THE CANADA-COLOMBIA
VETERINARY HEALTH CERTIFICATE
 In February 2014, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Canada-
Colombia FTA’s Administrative Committee held in Ottawa, Canada-
Colombia Ovine-Caprine Project met with ICA’s representatives for
purposes of getting their reaction to the veterinary health certificate
sent by Canada in October 2013. This certificate was prepared based on the risk assessment
conducted by COTASA (Technical Sanitary Committee of the Andean Community) in May 2012
and the questionnaires answered and submitted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)
to COTASA in May 2011. COTASA took a year to determine the pool of technicians that would
travel to Canada to carry out the above mentioned risk evaluation.
During that meeting, the representatives of the Colombian Livestock and Agriculture Institute
(ICA) were given the reasons why it is not required that Colombia abides by COTASA’s
recommendations, given that there is a Canada-Colombia FTA which enables Colombia to
continue its work with Canada with or without conforming to the recommendations of said
Committee.
 A meeting with Mr. Andrés Garcia, Deputy Minister of Agriculture was held also at the end of May
attended by a group of producers from Santander and Mr. Frederick Caldwell, Second Secretary
of the Canadian Embassy to Colombia where the same clarifications were made.
 Finally, in March, ICA sent its reaction to the health certificate the CFIA had sent in October 2013.
The response was given based on the outcomes of the Risk Assessment made by COTASA.
 In April. A meeting was held in Ottawa with the participation of the Canadian Livestock Genetics
Association (CLGA), and the CFIA for purposes of analysing ICA’s response.
 In May 2014, after the suggestions made by COTASA and the work developed in the Ovine-
Caprine Project, it was possible to expedite CFIA’s sending of a new health certificate to ICA.
 In June, a meeting was held in Bogotá between ICA and the Project’s SPS expert Dr. George
Luterbach, who explained the scope of Canada’s measures and strong commitment regarding
Sanitary matters.
 In July, ICA replied to the CFIA following the recommendations of COTASA and ignoring the
possibility to work directly with Canada under the Canada Colombia FTA’s framework.
Furthermore, on December 8, ICA suspended the health certificate for the import of ovine-caprine
semen from Canada, without giving any explanation as to why this was done.
 As one more activity of the Project and for purposes of activating the process, a meeting was held
in Canada in December 2014 with Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, (AAFC) the Canadian Food

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Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
(DFATD) nowadays named Global Affairs Canada (GAC). One of the positive outcomes achieved
in that meeting was a renewed interest in the case by the CFIA that motivated the Agency to send
a new health certificate to ICA.
 Also in December, the Project’s team traveled to Colombia together with the expert on sanitary
matters, where it held several meetings with ICA, industry representatives and the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development to discuss how Canada being a country with sanitary
standards among the highest in the world, is willing to work and find solutions to the requirements
of ICA. In furtherance to this visit and after submitting various
proposals intended to conform to ICA’s requirements, the CFIA
agreed to prepare and send a new health certificate to ICA. This
new scientifically supported Proposal was sent to ICA in February
2015.
 In view of the fact that ICA was taking a long time to react to the veterinary health certificate
proposed by Canada, it was possible, through the Project‘s efforts, to have Mrs. Carmen Sylvain,
Canada’s Ambassador to Colombia, stress the subject in her visit to ICA’s General Manager.
Thanks to Ambassador Sylvain’s visit to ICA in May 2015, ICA replied to the CFIA via a letter
containing 30 points, where ICA ratified its determination to conform to COTASA’s
recommendations and set new requirements, aside from asking additional laboratory tests.
 One more positive outcome contributed by the CATRTA Project is that thanks to the participation
of the Colombian Ovine-Caprine industry representatives in the technical mission to Canada
(organized under the Project) as well as the participation of the Colombian Embassy to Canada,
after nine months, the CFIA sent a new sanitary certificate to ICA.
The Colombian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
(Minister Iragorri and Deputy Minister Pineda) are well aware of this
certificate officially delivered to ICA in the first week of February,
2016.
 As furtherance to the Project’s actions, a final step was achieved. Thanks to the collaboration of
Mr. Nicolas Lloreda, Ambassador of Colombia to Canada, and taking into account the medium-
term possibility that Colombia may be able (as evidenced by INVIMA in its November visit) to
export lamb meat to the Canadian market and use Canadian genetics, the Health Certificate
issue will be discussed as part of the agenda for the upcoming Canada Colombia FTA’s
Administrative Meeting. This information has also been shared with the CFIA, the AAFC and
GAC.
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