Page 27 - Trade and Food Standards

reduce risks of microbiological contamination of food would fall under the SPS Agreement, while measures regarding packaging and labelling of food addressing risks not expressly covered by the SPS Agreement (e.g. information on nutritional content) would fall under the TBT Agreement.
International standards
Both the SPS and TBT Agreements strongly encourage WTO members to use international standards, guidelines and recommendations as the basis for their measures.
The SPS Agreement explicitly recognizes three international standard-setting bodies, covering the three main areas in which SPS measures are applied:
• theFAO/WHOCodexAlimentarius Commission, for food safety standards;
• theWorldOrganizationforAnimalHealth(OIE), for animal health standards and diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans (zoonoses); and
• theInternationalPlantProtectionConvention (IPPC), for plant-health standards.
Benefits of international standards and harmonization
International standards and harmonization help to:
• facilitate international trade since products meeting the same standards may be accepted more widely and producers do not need to know in advance the final markets for their products, resulting in fewer unnecessary trade restrictions;
• aid governments in developing science-based SPS measures to ensure food safety and animal and plant health without the need to undertake risk assessments on their own;
• provide the basis for conformity assessment procedures (e.g. testing, inspection or certification) that governments use to ensure that product requirements for safety, or other objectives, are respected;
• promote efficiencies and allow for economies
of scale since producers need not create
different processes or design and
manufacture many variations of a given
product to meet varying specifications; and
• provide a sound scientific and technical basis for measures taken to achieve policy objectives related to food;
• disseminate technology;
• lower costs for consumers.
Part 1. The institutional framework 15
TBT COMMITTEE'S SIX PRINCIPLES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
Effectiveness and relevance
Coherence
Transparency
Openness
Development dimension
Impartiality and consensus