WORLD TRADE G/TBT/Notif.97.440
18September 1997
ORGANIZATION
(97-3743)
Committee onTechnical Barriers toTrade
NOTIFICATION
Thefollowing notification isbeing circulated inaccordance withArticle 10.6.
1. Member toAgreement notifying: NETHERLANDS
Ifapplicable, name oflocalgovernment involved (Articles 3.2and7.2):
2. Agency responsible: Ministry ofAgriculture, Nature Management andFisheries.
Agency orauthority designated tohandle comments regarding thenotification canbe
indicated ifdifferent from above: National Enquiry Point
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X],2.10.1 [],5.6.2 [],5.7.1 [],other:
4. Products covered (HSorCCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading.
ICSnumbers maybeprovided inaddition, where applicable): Sewage sludge, compost
andblack soil,equipment forthelow-emission application ofsewage sludge.
5. Title, number ofpages andlanguage(s) ofthenotified document: Decree on(Quality
andUseof)Other Fertilizers Regulation onSampling andAnalysing other Organic
Fertilizers.
6. Description ofcontent: TheDecree regulates thesaleanduseofsewage sludge,
compost andblack soil(amixture ofsoilcomponents andprocessed organic waste
products). According totheDutch government, thedraft Decree specified inpoint 5
probably contains technical regulations within themeaning oftheTBT Agreement, as
amended. Anindicative listofthetechnical regulations canbefound below. Itis
prohibited tosellandusesewage sludge, compost andblack soiliftheprescribed
composition requirements arenotmet(Article 2).Regulations have been laiddown
(Articles 6and7)forcompost (Appendix II,B),veryclean compost (Appendix III)and
black soil(Appendix IV). Pursuant toArticles 8and16,further rules havebeendrafted
forsampling andanalysis. Wewould make reference totheRegulation onthesampling
andanalysis ofother organic fertilisers (also tobenotified) inthisrespect. When
products aresold, theymust beaccompanied byacopyoftheanalysis results.
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6. Description ofcontent: (cont'd)
Manufacturers, handlers orprocessors andtraders areobliged tokeeparegister
(Articles 9and10). Upon completion, these registers must besubmitted forcentral
registration. Furthermore, theDecree onlycontains rules fortheapplication ofsewage
sludge, compost andblack soilintooronthesoil. Asforsewage sludge, these
regulations gobeyond theDirective, because theDecree refers notonlytofarmland,
butalsotoother types oflandandnature reserves (Articles 23to25and27). Also, the
Decree regulates thelow-emission application ofother organic fertilisers. These
regulations areincluded inAppendix V.Intheevent oflow-emission application of
sewage sludge tograssland, applicators mustbeusedwhich allows thesewage sludge to
reach thesoilbetween thegrass inaprecisely defined manner.
7. Objective andrationale: Environmental protection.
8. Relevant documents: Articles 1,2,paragraph 1,Articles 6,19and22oftheFertiliser
Act,aswellasArticles 8,9,16,29,70and71oftheSoilProtection Act.
9. Proposed dateofadoption:
Proposed dateofentry intoforce:26October 1997
10. Final dateforcomments: 25October 1997
TheNetherlands willproceed toimplement theproposed measure after45days
ifnocomments orrequests forextension ofthetimelimithavebeenreceived fromother
Members within thattime.
11. Texts available from: National enquiry point [X]oraddress andtelefax number ofother
body: