DEBATE ON PRIVATE SECTOR STANDARDS CONTINUES IN SPS COMMITTEE

Some Members have suggested that governments should take responsibility for the WTO-compatibility of voluntary standards set by companies within their borders.

At a meeting of the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures from 27-28 June, Egypt, Argentina and several other developing countries said that governments were, in fact, responsible for the standard-setting activities of private sector entities operating within their territory. With this debate, meeting participants continued a two-year old debate on private sector standards, which started when the small island state of St. Vincent and the Grenadines first drew attention to the challenges it faced when trying to access the EU market due to strict standards set by commercial supermarket chains (see BRIDGES Weekly, 6 July 2005).

The EU questioned the notion of countries being responsible for private-sector standards, noting that there had been no disputes to clarify the issue yet. Other major developed country importers declined to comment on the issue at this point.

Some developing countries cautioned that the remit of private sector standards was expanding, now touching on issues such as production methods, environmental concerns including 'food miles' (i.e. carbon emissions associated with transport of agricultural products), and labour and fair trade issues. This led to high expenses and further complications for their exporters, they said.

Also at the SPS meeting, Argentina introduced a paper (G/SPS/W/211) criticising the standards for pesticide residues set by importing countries. The problem was first raised in the context of the agreed international standard-setting body Codex Alimentarius (jointly managed by UN-agencies FAO and WHO), and now brought to the SPS Committee because of its bearing on trade. Backed by a number of developing countries, including Brazil, Chile, Cuba and Pakistan, Argentina said that Members are setting standards stricter than those agreed at Codex, or setting standards not yet covered by Codex.

Argentina called for the development of more Codex standards in this area, noting as an example that only 30 percent of pesticides used in Argentina were covered by international standards. The paper further called for scientific justification for the strict standards being imposed, stressing that developing countries lack the resources to prove the contrary. The paper also stressed that the additional costs related to complying with the pesticide standards falls on countries that do not subsidise their agricultural sector -- something the importing countries setting the standards often do. As such, market entry is already being constrained.

Under the SPS Agreement, WTO Members are allowed to set a standard of human and plant protection that they consider 'appropriate,' but any trade restrictions must be backed by a scientific risk assessment and applied only to the extent necessary to attain the stated goal.

The next meeting of the SPS Committee will take place from 17-18 October. The Codex Alimentarius Commission is currently meeting in Rome (from 2-7 July) and will deal with pesticide residues, among other issues.

Marinus PC Huige of the Netherlands was elected new chair of the SPS Committee.

ICTSD reporting.