1.The competent inspection body shall at the stage of export ensure by a conformity check that products intended for export to third countries leave the Community's customs territory only if they conform to the marketing standards.
Exporters shall provide the inspection bodies with all information those bodies judge necessary for organising and carrying out checks.
2.Member States may specify, for each category of trader concerned and based on a risk analysis, the minimum proportion of consignments and quantities subject to conformity checks by the competent inspection body at the export stage. This proportion shall be sufficient to ensure compliance with Community rules. Where these checks reveal significant irregularities, the inspection bodies shall increase the proportion of consignments checked in the case of the traders concerned.
Member States may apply the provisions mentioned in the second subparagraph to traders fulfilling the following conditions:
(a)they offer sufficient guarantees of a consistent and high rate of conformity for the fruit and vegetables which they market;
(b)they have inspection staff who have received training approved by the Member State;
(c)they undertake to check the conformity of the goods they market; and
(d)they undertake to keep a register recording all the checks they have carried out.
3.After completion of the checking operations mentioned in paragraph 1 the inspection body shall issue a certificate of conformity as set out in Annex III for each lot intended for export and which they consider to be in conformity with the marketing standards. Where the export consignment consists of several lots, the conformity of those lots may be certified on a single certificate which clearly lists the various lots constituting that consignment.
Where, in accordance with paragraph 2, lots concerned by the certificate of conformity have not been checked by the competent inspection body at the export stage, the mention ‘self-check (Article 11(2) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 0000/2007)’ shall be reported in box 13 (Comments) of the certificate.
4.The export declaration may be accepted by the competent customs authority only if:
(a)the goods are accompanied by either the certificate referred to in paragraph 3 or the certificate referred to in Article 19(2); or
(b)the competent inspection body informed the customs authority, by appropriate means, that the relevant lots have been subject to the issue of one of those two certificates.