China Sanitary Certificates Electronic Trade

Document Exchange System (eTDE) and

Electronic Document Creation System

(eDocs)

Overview of the USDA Online Procedures
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Table of Contents

Applicant Checklist..................................................................................................... 3

Timing to Register and Begin Requesting Certificates................................................ 3

Overview ................................................................................................................... 4

Section 1: Registration .............................................................................................. 5

Section 2: Requesting Certificates............................................................................. 8

Section 3: Amendments.......................................................................................... 14

Contact .................................................................................................................... 15
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Applicant Checklist

To work within this security framework, there are a number of actions that new users

and companies must take:

 Obtain level 2 eAuthentication. Each individual who will access the eTDE/eDocs 

system must have level 2 eAuthentication and complete eTDE registration.

 Register in eTDE

 Sign up for an eTDE/eDocs training session with USDA AMS Information Technology 

Services (ITS) once eTDE registration is complete. 

Timing to Register and Begin Requesting Certificates

Required Action Timeline

eTDE Registration Up to 2 weeks

eTDE/eDocs Training – (please note that the schedule is 

subject to change based on the trainer’s availability)

Conducted every 

Thursday at 4 p.m. 

Certificate Processing through eDocs Up to 5 business days
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Overview

The Chinese Certification and Accreditation Administration (CNCA) has required dairy 

and infant formula plants that ship products to China to be registered with them 

through the publication of facility lists.

To be successfully published on CNCA’s dairy and infant formula plant lists, the plants 

must be found compliant with Chinese laws and regulations. On June 15, 2017, CNCA 

and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) signed a Memorandum of 

Understanding (MOU) that recognizes the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) as a 

third-party certifier eligible to conduct verification audits against Chinese requirements 

for U.S. dairy and infant formula plants intending to export to China.

Obtaining a verification audit is mandatory for plants to be registered; plants not 

registered are not eligible to ship to China. CNCA has published a catalogue of products

(pdf) that require registration. This must be completed before requesting Sanitary 

certificates through the Electronic Document Creation System (eDocs).

To request China Sanitary Certificates exporters must register to use the Electronic Trade

Document Exchange System (eTDE). eTDE provides a secure environment for sharing 

trade documentation with governments and businesses across the supply chain. eDocs

generates certificate requests to US government agencies for the creation of

government – issued trade documents disseminated through the eTDE system.

The following pages provide a basic overview guide of the eTDE/eDocs systems for the

China certificate. Please make sure you use the links provided to obtain the specific

step-by-step procedures, where necessary, for more detailed instructions.

Important: Please remember to allow 5 business days for processing certificate

requests through eDocs. Certificates are dated the day the information is reviewed and 

approved by a USDA endorser. Some countries do not accept Sanitary Certificates after

the consignment departs from the United States. It is the exporter’s responsibility to

make sure they meet the importing country’s documentation requirements prior to

shipping.
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Section 1: Registration 

Step 1: Go to eTDE home – http://www.etde.usda.gov/ and select

http://www.eauth.egov.usda.gov/

Step 2: Select Create an Account
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Step 3: Select Register for a level 2 Account

By selecting Register for a Level 2 eAuthentication you will be provided access to

complete your registration in eTDE. Once you have level 2 authentication you must 

then go to the closest USDA service center with a government-issued ID to prove identity. 

USDA Local Registration Authority (LRA) locations are found at: 

http://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator/app?type=lra. 

Once eAuthentication has been completed you will finish your eTDE registration by 

establishing your company as entity and associating staff to that entity (see Step 4).
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Step 4: Go to http://www.etde.usda.gov/eTDEHelpCenter_Dairy.aspx and follow instructions in eTDE

Dairy Owner User Guide

This Guide will show the actual eTDE Graphical User Interface (GUI) and provides

step-by-step instructions for how users will interact with each screen. The eTDE System

can be accessed on the internet at http://www.etde.usda.gov. 

Once fully registered in eTDE, exporters must contact DairyNFO@ams.usda.gov to

request attendance in an IT training session for eTDE/eDocs. Once you have attended 

the training your eTDE registration should be complete. You can then go to the

Electronic Document Creation System (eDocs) to apply for China Sanitary Certificates.
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Section 2: Requesting Certificates

Once you have completed all of the registration steps and training you are now ready to begin 

requesting export certificate in the eDocs system. 

Step 1: Go to - https://www.etde.usda.gov/eDocsto request export certificates. Select “Login to 

eDocs.

Step 2: Enter your eAuthentication User ID and Password.
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Step 3. Select China from the drop down list.
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Exporters can create custom templates for regular shipments. Each company can store

up to 60 templates.

There are three sections on the request forms.

• Billing Details

• Part I for consignment details

• Applicant Certifications where you attest your information is accurate

There are three tabs for each request.

• The actual form tab

• A Comments tab where you can add comments or USDA adds

comments if a request is rejected

• An Attachment tab where you attach your self-addressed courier label if

you wish to receive the certificate via courier service

If a courier label is not attached, certificates are returned via United States Postal

Service (US Mail). Please note that UPS and Federal Express make daily pickups at AMS. 

There may be a delay if USPS or DHL services are used as pickups have to be scheduled 

and are infrequent. 
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Part 1 – Consgiment Details. Provide information in all required fields which are 

annotated with an asterisk (*). The individual requesting the document must be 

associated with the Consignor and the Consignor company name on the application 

must match exactly how the company name is registered in eTDE. If you need to 

associate a new user please review the instructions in the eTDE Application User Guide.

 Save the request if the information is complete.

 Save as a template if you wish to retain the information for 

future requests.
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This is the screen view after you select “save”.

If you make last second edits, select ‘Save’ again.

If you want to preview your document,select ‘Print PDF’

If you are ready to request a document, select ‘Submit’.

If you select “Submit” the screen takes you back to the original screen “My Certificate

Requests”.
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Requests in the ‘In Progress’

tab are still available for

editing.

The requests have not been

submitted if they are still in 

“new” status in the ‘In 

progress’ tab. These are

active request that can still

have edits or attachments

added. USDA does not have access to requests in “new” status, they must be

submitted for USDA to review the information.

Submitted requests appear in the ‘Submitted’ tab; they are pending review and 

approval by USDA. Exporters may still pull back requests in ‘submitted’ status for

editing if USDA has not opened the request for review.

The table below provides a description of the various statuses under the Submitted tab.

Status Description

New The exporter has saved a certificate from a

template or copied data from an old certificate 

but has not yet modified the certificate.

In Progress The certificate is saved after modifying information

from a template or data copied over from an old

certificate but has not yet submitted the application

for approval.

Submitted The exporter has successfully submitted the

certificate to AMS for approval.

Reviewing AMS is in the process of reviewing the certificate 

but has not yet approved or rejected the

application.

Approved AMS has approved the certificate but the eTDE

data transfer has not yet been made (eTDE runs

are scheduled every 3 hours).

Rejected AMS rejected the certificate. Note: If a certificate is 

rejected AMS will provide a reason for the rejection 

under the Notes Section.

Ready to print eTDE data transfer was made and the certificate is

ready for AMS to print the official copy.
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Printed AMS has printed the original certificate.

Recalled The exporter has canceled a certificate request after

submitting it to AMS and has not yet submitted a

revised application (a certificate cannot be recalled

after AMS has approved it).

Section 3: Amendments

To request an amendment select the document that needs amended from your

queue. If there is already an amendment(s) in the system, you must select the most

recent amendment to make the new changes. Select ‘Amend/Supersede’ make the

necessary changes, select ‘save’, attach courier label, and select ‘submit’
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Contact

USDA, Agricultural Marketing Service

1400 Independence Avenue, SW

Room 2746-South Building

Washington, DC 20250-0269

E-mail: DairyExportsQuestions@ams.usda.gov

Fax: 844-804-4701

Acting Director

Will Francis

Dairy Grading & Standardization Division

202-720-6274

William.Francis@ams.usda.gov

Dairy Grading Staff

LatoyaV Carr 

202-260-9523

LatoyaV.Carr@ams.usda.gov

Carrie Sayasithsena

202-720-9381

Carrie.Sayasithsena@ams.usda.gov

MD McWilliams

202-720-3171

MD.McWilliams@ams.usda.gov

To Request Account Information for Dairy Export Certificates

Phone: 630-437-5045

Fax: 630-437-5060

Email: DairyNFO@ams.usda.gov

Or by mail:

USDA, AMS, Dairy

2150 Western Court, Suite 100

Lisle, IL 60532

For technical questions or

concerns with eTDE/eDocs please

contact:

Fariba.Tacoukjou@ams.usda.gov