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SPS COMMITTEE TACKLES BSE, FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE
The BSE (mad cow disease) crisis and the latest developments in the
outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) ranked high on the agenda of
the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) that met
on 14-15 March. Members furthermore addressed 'equivalence' and
developing countries' participation in international standard setting
bodies -- issues that are also regularly discussed in the General
Council as part of ongoing talks on implementation.
BSE
With regard to the BSE crisis, Members dealt with the question whether
under Article 5.7 of the SPS Agreement -- which allows Members to
provisionally adopt SPS measures in cases where relevant scientific
evidence is insufficient -- countries restricting imports should seek
information first, or whether they could "shoot first, ask questions
later" as one delegate put it. Brazil said it would prepare a paper on
this issue for the General Council discussions on implementation.
Canada explained its recent actions on BSE, referring in particular to
its temporary ban on Brazilian beef, which has now been lifted (see
BRIDGES, 27 February 2001). Discussions on this issue largely mirrored previous
exchanges in meetings of the Dispute Settlement Body. Information on
actions related to BSE was also presented by the EU. Without specifying
particular countries, the EU said that some trading partners' actions
were unnecessarily harsh, including bans on products, which the
International Organization of Epizootics (OIE) does not consider to
pose risks. In addition, the OIE and the World Health Organization
presented their latest papers on BSE (G/SPS/GEN/230 and G/SPS/GEN/221;
available online).
Foot and mouth disease
The EU reported on recent developments in the FMD crisis, including the
outbreak of FMD in France. While describing its 'regional' approach to
dealing with the disease, the EU pointed out that some countries'
decision to ban imports from the whole of the EU had been excessive.
There were no responses from other WTO Members.
The US -- followed by numerous countries around the world, including
Australia, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, and New Zealand -- has imposed a
ban on the import of livestock, meat, and dairy products from the 15 EU
member states in a bid to stop the highly contagious disease from
spreading. While addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg,
France, EU Food Safety Commissioner David Byrne on Wednesday criticised
these measures as "excessive and unjustified", mentioning the
possibility of seeking WTO action on this issue. EU officials, however,
played down his remarks on Thursday, saying that at this stage recourse
to the WTO is not being sought. "This is not about an EU-US trade
dispute. This is a veterinary and sanitary issue," Anthony Gooch,
spokesman for EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, told reporters.
Equivalence and developing countries participation in standard-setting
The Committee agreed that 'equivalence' does not necessarily require
formal equivalence agreements, but can be achieved at different levels.
Equivalence is addressed in Article 4 of the SPS Agreement, which
requires Members to accept differing SPS measures of other Members as
equivalent if they provide the appropriate level of protection. Members
also stressed the importance of information and called on countries to
notify each other through the WTO when they accept that other measures
have equivalent results. The issue of equivalence has previously been
raised in General Council meetings on implementation when developing
countries have accused developed countries of not doing enough to
accept that their actions on exported products provide levels of
protection that are equivalent to the developed countries'
requirements. The chairperson of the Committee submitted a report on
the outcomes of the discussion on this issue to the 16 March informal
General Council meeting on implementation (see related story, this
issue).
The three main international standard-setting bodies -- Codex
Alimentarius, OIE and the International Plant Protection Convention --
briefed Members on participation in standard-setting bodies at a
workshop prior to the SPS Committee meeting. Information showed that
developing countries' participation in SPS issues has increased, though
not necessarily as much as is desired. Egypt pointed out that both
developing and developed countries needed to act to increase
participation while Malaysia proposed that more standard-setting
meetings should be held in developing countries. This issue was most
recently addressed in a report by WTO Director-General Mike Moore to
the 8 March General Council Special Session on implementation
(WT/CG/45; available online).
An unofficial but on-the-record account of last week's SPS Committee
meeting has been posted to the news section of the WTO website at: http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news_e.htm#sps.
The next SPS Committee meeting is currently scheduled for 10-11 July
2001.
"U.S. ban on EU meat could be trade time bomb," REUTERS, 15 March
2001; "World puts up barriers to European livestock, meat and dairy
imports," AFP, 15 March 2001; ICTSD Internal Files.
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