WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/469 
8 March 2004 
 (04-1008) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
SPS AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 
 
SPECIAL AND DIFFERENTIAL TREA TMENT, TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE, 
TRANSPARENCY 
 
Submission by Papua New Guinea
 
   The following communication, dated 3 March 2004, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of Papua New Guinea. 
 
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 A. I
NTRODUCTION  
1. Papua New Guinea faces increasing difficulties in  dealing with sanitary and phytosanitary 
standards and requirements imposed by major trad ing partners, especially developed country WTO 
Members.  Many of these SPS measures are much more restrictive than internationally accepted 
standards and result in many instances in de facto  trade barriers, affecting Papua New Guinea's ability 
to export more than do tariffs. 
2. Around 90 per cent of tariff lines for Papua New Guinea's exports are complemented by a 
certain level of such SPS measures.  Together with  tariff escalation and tariff peaks, they are the 
actual factors constraining the fuller development of exports in the key sectors for the national 
economy:  agriculture, fisheries and forestry. 
3. Moreover, Papua New Guinea, like many other de veloping Members, and especially the small 
and vulnerable economies and the least-developed countries, cannot significantly benefit from the 
provisions of the SPS Agreement.  Problems include: 
- given Government's priorities in terms of  health and education development and 
improvement of basic infrastructures, scarce  financial and human resources cannot be 
devoted to institutional impr ovements and to testing and certification of quality and 
safety in order to comply with SPS import re quirements of many trading partners.  A 
recent example is the inability to participat e in the special meetings in Geneva on the 
operation of enquiry points in October 2003; 
- the lack of permanent representation in Geneva prevents Papua New Guinea from 
participating consistently in the discu ssions of the SPS Committee and to defend 
national interests in the international arena; 
- the size and financial capacity of the public sector will make it extremely difficult to 
cope with the flood of SPS notifications subm itted by trading partners, thus losing the 
opportunity to comment on the notifications  within the allowed 60-day time period; G/SPS/GEN/469 
Page 2  
 
 - trade-related technical assistance provided by the WTO Secretariat or by donors tends 
to focus on broader issues whereas Papua Ne w Guinea still needs capacity-building in 
basic areas like implementation of WTO rules, negotiating skills, and dissemination 
of information on international agreements. 
4. Papua New Guinea is committed to improvi ng its use and understanding of the SPS 
Agreement in order to gain better market access co nditions, and intends to be more proactive in the 
work of the SPS Committee:  by raising any speci fic trade concern related to notifications and 
implementation of the Agreement by other Me mbers;  by submitting proposals on the current 
negotiations and clarifications of specific articles. 
5. To achieve that, Papua New Gu inea needs special and differential treatment (SDT) which is 
crucial for all developing countries.  "Best-endeav our" language is not e nough and SDT provisions 
should be strengthened and made more precise, e ffective and operational in  all WTO Agreements, 
especially given that negotiations on the overall framework for SDT missed so many deadlines and 
are stuck at the Trade and Development Committee.   The way ahead is implementation of the SDT 
concept agreement by agreement, article by article, annex by annex, interpretation by interpretation 
(as also the General Council seems to imply by referring implementation issues on SDT to specific 
WTO bodies).  In the following, Papua New Guinea suggests how to strengthen SDT provisions in the context of the SPS Agreement. 
B. S
PECIAL AND DIFFERENTIAL TREATMEN T PROPOSALS REFERRED BY THE GENERAL COUNCIL  
6. On 20 May 2003, the Chairman of the Genera l Council referred five proposals relating to 
special and differential treatment to the SPS Committee1 and in June the Committee adopted a work 
plan for further consideration of these proposals.2  Differences remain marked among Members even 
after the Committee meetings in October, therefor e, further comments and specific suggestions on the 
five proposals will be considered at the March 2004 meeting.3 
7. Papua New Guinea fully understands the concern expressed by a number of Members that 
legitimate SPS measures for health protection sh ould not be withdrawn because they might be 
difficult for some Members to meet.  On the ot her hand, all Members must recognize that SPS 
measures imposed by certain developed countries ar e too stringent, and developing countries often 
cannot meet such requirements for lack of human  and financial resources.  Developing countries 
should therefore be provided with concrete assist ance to comply with SPS measures, and Articles 9 
and 10 made more operational to prevent such measures becoming de facto  trade barriers. 
8. Papua New Guinea wishes to join India and other developing countries in supporting 
proposals A, F and K on amending Technical Assistance and Special and Differential Treatment 
provisions of the SPS Agreement.4  Such amendments offer a bala nce between the need for health 
protection and the recognition of the much needed  assistance and special treatment for developing 
countries.  To avoid complicating the already lo ng debate conducted by the SPS Committee with new 
language, no changes are suggested to the wording of A, F and K, but an interpretation of the 
proposed text is put forward, in order to fully achieve the spirit and objective of Articles 9 and 10. 
9. Technical Assistance should not be intended as short term, ad hoc provision of seminars and 
courses only, as it is currently shaped in most donors'  activities, but rather as continuous cooperation 
between relevant national authorities.  And not onl y through supply of technology and facilities, but 
                                                      
1 JOB(03)/100. 
2 G/SPS/26. 
3 G/SPS/30. 
4 G/SPS/W/135.  G/SPS/GEN/469 
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 also through consistent training of officers over time up to the establishment of appropriate 
institutions for certification and labelling where o fficials from involved developed country Members 
initially operate in a local-foreign partnership with the developing country government.  
10. In terms of SDT, taking "account of the speci al needs of developing country Members" 
should translate into careful consideration of co untry-specific institutional and economic weaknesses 
and consequent action by the de veloped country Member in applying SPS measures.  This would 
imply provision of "free of cost" assistance and gr anting of longer periods for full compliance to small 
and vulnerable economies and least-developed c ountries, where size, remoteness, economic 
vulnerability and reliance on a limited number of tr adable goods may cause a restrictive measure to 
disrupt large shares of export earnings.  
C. TRANSPARENCY  
11. Alongside the difficulties in complying with th e requirements of trade partners, the other 
major problem faced by developing countries with r espect to SPS measures is the inability to keep 
pace with new regulations being notified and to in fluence the content of them.  Many developing 
countries, and especially the least-developed and small and vulnerable among them, do not have the 
administrative capacity to deal with the flood of  notifications submitted by trade partners, and 
therefore lose the opportunity to comment on th e notifications and to react properly to new 
restrictions.  Because they cannot influence regulat ions ex ante, SPS measures regularly fail to take 
into account their special needs, and this increase s the likelihood for countries like Papua New Guinea 
of being unable to comply. 
12. Similar concerns led the Committee to address the issue of transparency with the objective of 
improving the provisions of the SPS Agreement on formulation of new measures, especially in the 
context of special and differential treatment for developing countries.  Papua New Guinea wishes to 
commend the effort of those Members, including  Egypt, Canada, Mexico and China, who have 
submitted proposals to strengthen transparency, ther efore preventing unnecessary international trade 
barriers and fostering harmonization, with a partic ular focus on the special needs of developing 
countries. 
13. Papua New Guinea believes that all important issues raised in the proposals submitted by 
Canada, Egypt and Mexico should be taken into  account to strengthen the provisions of the 
SPS Agreement in favour of developing countries.  Improvements in the procedures for submission 
and handling of notifications, in the notification fo rmats and in the "pre-notification" of measures 
should receive equal weight in the discussions of the SPS Committee and indeed should be considered 
as complementary in order to fully implement the SDT component of the Agreement.  Therefore, 
Papua New Guinea proposes that the Committee accept the three mechanisms presented in documents 
G/SPS/W/132/Rev.1, G/SPS/GEN/358 and G/SPS/W/136, with few marginal amendments.  
14. With respect to the procedures to  be followed to enhance tran sparency of SDT, the revised 
elaboration by the Secretariat of the Canadian proposal , already adopted in principle, is acceptable to 
Papua New Guinea.  The language submitted by the Secretariat makes Article 10.1 more operational 
and effective.  The proposal by the United States5, instead, includes amendments which diminish the 
SDT element of the notification procedures: 
- "should consider granting an extension of th irty days" (instead of "should normally 
grant an extension") in Step 3, "may re quest an opportunity to discuss the potential 
difficulty with the notifying Member" (instead of "the notifying Member will contact 
the appropriate officials in the exporting Member") in Step 5, and "possibly through 
                                                      
5 G/SPS/W/141 G/SPS/GEN/469 
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 specifically-directed techni cal assistance in Step 6", represent "best endeavour" 
language, setting no mandatory commitments on the side of the notifying importing country to provide the required SDT to the exporting developing country (possibly in 
contrast to the mandatory nature of Article 10.1); 
- the proposals of providing "justification for the request for extension" of the comment 
period and of additional obligations for wr itten documents on the part of the exporting 
Member constitute an administrative burden for many developing countries and are not in the spirit of SDT. 
15. Without amending the text of G/SPS/W/132/Rev.1 and, therefore, without further delaying 
the adoption of it by the Committee, Papua New Guinea would like to suggest  that this new decision 
on submission and handling of notifications be cons idered applicable to previously existing SPS 
regulations which are harming export interests of  developing countries, especially the small and 
vulnerable and least developed among th em.  The spirit of steps 6 and 7 should be applied to measures 
already enforced by developed Members, consider ing the fact that several developing country 
Members lag behind on the proper monitoring of SPS re quirements or started only recently to closely 
follow the work of the Committee.  If in some instances this may not be feasible, procedures included 
in step 6 and 7 should at least apply on a demand-dr iven basis, for the most important products of 
export interest to each developing country (based on export shares statistics), and especially in the 
case of countries relying on few commodities for export earnings.  
16. Another effective measure to assist developing c ountries in their effort to benefit from the 
provisions of the SPS Agreement is the proposal by Egypt for the inclusion of information on 
available special and differential treatment in the not ification formats.  The objective of the additional 
box, as presented in document G/SPS/GEN/358, is to identify, at the time a measure is being developed or modified, the developing countries whic h might be affected by the new measure and the 
availability of special and differential treatment or  relevant technical assistance.  Papua New Guinea 
fully supports the proposal by Egypt to add the following information in a separate box of the 
notification formats:  "exporting de veloping countries interested in the notified measures";  "type of 
technical requirements likely to be needed to co mply with the notified measures";  "type of SDT 
measure that the notifying country is ready to provid e before going into bilate ral consultation";  "types 
and the source of technical and financial assistance that the notifying country is ready to provide upon 
bilateral requests". 
17. As the Egyptian proposal refers to notified measures involving regulations that go beyond the 
level set by international standards, guidelines or  recommendations, Papua New Guinea proposes that 
countries reporting SPS regulations no t substantially different from re levant international standards 
and notified only for sake of transparency be exem pted from filling the new SDT box.  This would 
limit additional administrative burden for the notifyi ng Member, and could be implemented by simply 
marking the appropriate reference of existing standard, guideline or recommendation while indicating 
"none" in the space for "deviations from the inte rnational standard, guideline or recommendation" 
(item 8 of the Recommended  Transparency Procedures6).  It is noted that such practice would also 
address the problem identified by China in the analysis on SPS notifications in 20027, which showed 
that confusion is often created by Members notifyi ng, for pure sake of transparency, also measures 
that are based on relevant international standards ("the present notification format does not take this 
situation into consideration and therefor e it results in some misunderstanding"). 
18. With the objective of achieving a compromi se, Papua New Guinea would be ready to 
consider adopting the mechanism proposed  by Egypt only in the case of routine  notifications 
                                                      
6 G/SPS/7/Rev.2. 
7 G/SPS/GEN/378, Paragraph 8.  G/SPS/GEN/469 
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 (Annex B, paragraph 5) if the Committee concluded that in the case of urgent problems of health 
protection the notifying Member should be exempted  from providing the information on interested 
developing countries and technical requirements and available special and differential treatment.  In 
this second option, the SDT box would not be incl uded in formats for notification of emergency 
measures (Annex B, paragraph 6). 
19. Finally, Papua New Guinea supports the s uggestion under consideration by the Committee 
presented by Mexico for the pre-notification of SPS measures being developed by Members, and the 
description of the objective and the products to be covered.  The proposal in document G/SPS/W/136 
is a very good step in the direction of enhancing transparency and would be particularly useful for developing countries, especially the small and vul nerable and least developed among them.  By 
receiving at the beginning of the year informa tion on the technical sanitary and phytosanitary 
regulations to be submitted by tr ading partners during the year, relevant authorities could plan in 
advance which SPS requirements and which Member count ries to focus on.  For the most important of 
them, even countries like Papua New Guinea where th e human and financial resources to be devoted 
to SPS regulations are very limited, could subm it comments to be discussed with the proposing 
Member. 
20. While recognizing the importance of the Mexi can proposal, Papua New Guinea suggests that 
such a mechanism be initially implemented by deve loped country Members and, on a voluntary basis, 
by those developing country Members like Mexico which are ready to do so because they regularly 
work on such annual advance publication of planne d SPS requirements.  Given resource constraints 
and the administrative burden that such planning would imply, a longer implementation period should 
be granted for the "pre-notification" to other deve loping countries, and particularly to the small and 
vulnerable and least developed among them. 
D. C
ONCLUSION  
21. Papua New Guinea believes that the simultane ous operation of the proposals described in 
sections B and C would represent a turning point in  the way developing countries benefit from the 
SPS Agreement as part of their efforts towards inte gration into the global economy.  The mandate of 
Article 10 for Special and Differential Treatment  can be fully achieved only if the SPS Committee 
endorses the mandatory nature of Articles 9 and 10 (as suggested by proposals A, F and K) and the improvements in the procedures for submission and handling of notifications, in the notification 
formats and in the "pre-notification" of measures.   All these amendments should be viewed as a single 
new package in favour of developing countries, as the proposals by Canada, Egypt and Mexico could 
be considered part of the implementation of the new Articles 9 and 10 as shaped by proposals A, K, 
and F. 
22. It has to be noted that the views expressed in this submission reflect some of the concerns of 
small and vulnerable economies, wh ere institutional and economic wea knesses bring both inability to 
comply with many SPS measures imposed by trad ing partners and difficulties in screening 
notifications and influencing devel opments at the SPS Committee.  Therefore, as a concluding remark 
Papua New Guinea would like to emphasize that th e following suggestions included in document 
WT/COMTD/SE/W/3
8 are still on the table for consideration by the Dedicated Session of the 
Committee on Trade and Development and that they  are likely to be referred to the SPS Committee 
once the Work Programme on Small Economies is completed: 
- "If an exporting small economy identifies spec ific problems of inadequate technology 
and infrastructure in comply ing with the requirements on sanitary and phytosanitary 
                                                      
8 "Concrete Proposals to address certain specific c oncerns and problems affecting the Trade of Small 
Economies". G/SPS/GEN/469 
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 measures and/or with the technical regul ations and standards of an importing 
developed country, the latter shall provide  the relevant technology and technical 
facilities on preferential and non-commercial terms, preferably free of costs."  
- "There should be appropriate flexibility for small economies in dealing with time-
frames and notifications requirements."  
- "It should also be explicitly recognised th at a regional body can be designated by any 
interested small economy as the competent authority for the implementation of the 
provisions of the SPS and TBT Agreements." 
 
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