Page 8 - Trade and Food Standards

public health objectives such as food safety and nutrition, while providing a basis for trade to take place. The WTO provides a set of rules for multilateral trade, and is a forum to resolve disputes and negotiate new rules. Since standards are essential for smooth trade, the WTO Agreements strongly encourage governments to harmonize their requirements on the basis of international standards. In the area of food safety and quality, the WTO's Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures and WTO's Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) rely on Codex standards by setting these out as the benchmark for harmonization.
By reducing the need for producers to comply with different standards in different markets, harmonization becomes a powerful tool to make trade less costly and more inclusive. This can help governments that may struggle to find the necessary resources to invest in developing their own food safety requirements, as they can rely on the best available scientific knowledge as embodied in international standards.
Underpinning the system of food standards and trade rules is highly technical work that takes place at Codex and the WTO, led by our members. While often unseen, participation in this work is essential to ensure that standards take into account the realities and address the needs of
Graziano da Silva, Director-General, FAO
different countries. Engagement is also required to resolve trade frictions that inevitably arise, and to keep trade rules up to date with current challenges.
To be able to participate and engage internationally countries need to invest adequately in food safety and food control, and Governments need the domestic capacity to effectively coordinate between all stakeholders. This is both to have an impact at Codex and the WTO to shape standards and trade rules, and to take advantage of the tools provided by this system to enhance domestic food safety and expand export opportunities. Training and capacity building, such as that provided by FAO and the WTO, including through the Standards and Trade Development Facility – a partnership involving FAO and the WTO along with OIE, WHO and the World Bank – play an essential role in enabling developing countries to effectively use the system.
This report describes how the institutional frameworks of FAO and the WTO come together to create a system for international food standards and trade, outlines how this system functions in practice, and presents some emerging issues at the intersection of food standards and trade. We hope that this report will remind policy makers of the importance of our joint work on trade and food standards which owes its success to the active participation of our members.
Roberto Azevêdo, Director-General, WTO
vi Part 1. The institutional framework