The use of the eCITES validation portal is free of charge.
The Convention on International Trade in endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) has developed the CITES electronic Permitting Toolkit which provides a standard for electronic CITES permits. CITES recommends the use of this standard for exchange of electronic Permits between Parties.
The CITES XML standard is based on the UN/CEFACT eCERT message and the UN/CEFACT Core Component Library (CLL). eCERT is also recommended by FAO IPPC as the international standard for electronic Phytosanitary certificates.
The CITES electronic Permitting toolkit is maintained by the CITES working Group on Information Technologies and electronic Systems. The latest version of the toolkit is Version 3.0
This automated solution allows CITES Management Authorities, other Government agencies and Single Window Operators to test validate their electronic CITES permits through a Web portal. The Web Portal will validate the XML message against the specification of the ePermitting toolkit and return a compliance assessment.
The ultimate goal is to facilitate cross border exchange of electronic CITES permits by providing an automated service to ensure that messages exchange between parties are conform to the standard.
It is recommended that parties engaging in exchange of electronic CITES permits develop a number of electronic CITES permits that reflect the different use cases of permits issued by the country.
These XML permits should then be uploaded and validated in the Web portal and the local IT systems should be corrected were necessary.
Once the permits have been testes successfully the Management Authorities can exchange their electronic permits directly with other countries, for example using the Electronic Permit Information eXchange (EPIX).
It is not necessary to use the Web portal for ongoing exchange of permits. Rather the portal should be used for initial test and when the major software updates have been made.