Health & Consumers Directorate General EU SPS Notification Authority and Enquiry Point - working methods Brussels, 23 November 2011

Sanitary & Phytosanitary Agreement General provisions SPS rules applied by WTO members should be: 1)Proportional to the risk 2)Non-discriminatory between WTO members 3)Least trade disruptive (sometimes the new rule could result in complex administrative procedures) 4)Based on scientific evidence 5)Based on international standards (where available..) AND the Precautionary Principle (Art. 5.7)

Sanitary & Phytosanitary Agreement General provisions 6) Level of protection 7) Equivalence 8) Regionalization 9) Special and differential treatment 10) Technical assistance

How SPS standards are set up in the EU? EU Standing Committees, managed by the Commission (e.g. SCOFCAH “Standing Committee for the Food Chain and Animal Health”) After independent scientific advice by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and After consideration of International standards (OIE, Codex, IPPC)

Special and differential treatment Not just SPS – also contained in other WTO agreements Art.10 of the SPS Agreement Developed countries should take into account of special needs of Developing countries (it is not a favour but an obligation…) However, “margin of manoeuvre” in SPS is limited: Give longer time-frames for compliance of new SPS measures for products of interest to DCs The Committee is able to grant (upon request) specified time limited exemptions of the provisions BUT no requirement to accept lower SPS standards for DCs compared with other members

Main tasks of the EU SPS Enquiry Point Preparing EU and Members States notifications Replying to comments from Third Countries to the EU SPS notifications Preparing comments to Third Countries legislative drafts (coordination with TRADE DG and Member States)

Coordination EU-Member States SPS measures notify to WTO by the EU are covered by EU law. Areas not covered by EU provisions remain under MS competence.

Notification procedures of national measures EU legislations can allow MS to adopt national measures under certain conditions: MS shall notify intended measures to Commission and other MSs; MS can only adopt national measures if no negative opinion of Commission on compatibility with EU legislation.

Thank you for your attention! European Union SPS Notification Authority & Enquiry Point Unit G/6 Multilateral International relations SPS Team: Marta Sobieraj, Enrique Beltrán Poveda Phone: +32 (2) Fax: +32 (2)