. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/GC/54
7 November 2001
(01-5490)
General Council
Special Session on Implementation
ACTIONS TO INCREASE THE PARTICIPATION OF DEVELOPING
COUNTRY MEMBERS IN THE WORK OF RELEVANT SANITARY AND
PHYTOSANITARY INTERNATIONAL STANDARD-SETTING ORGANIZATIONS
Third Report by the Director-General
1. Following-up on my efforts to explore with the relevant international standard-setting
organizations and relevant intergovernmental organizations financial and technical mechanisms to
assist the participation of developing countries in standard-setting activities and to coordinate efforts
to identify SPS-related technical assistance needs and how best to address these, I invited the FAO,OIE, World Bank and WHO to participate in a second informal meeting at the level of Deputy
Directors-General, to address these issues.
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2. Participants from the five organizations provided an overview of actions they have taken
since the last meeting.  One initiative is the joint development by the FAO, WHO, OIE, World Bank
and WTO of a "Conceptual Framework Paper" on the capacity-building needs of LDCs on food
safety/SPS issues.
3. The OIE reported on several ongoing technical assistance activities and, in particular, the
financial assistance for the participation of Chief Veterinary Officers in the OIE General Sessions and
in several scientific and technical consultations, as well  the decision by the OIE Member countries to
decrease the contribution of least-developed countries by 50 per cent and increase the contributions by
other Members by 25 per cent, effective 2002.  The OIE has also concluded an agreement of
cooperation with the World Bank to improve support to veterinary services in developing countries,particularly in areas relevant to implementation of the SPS Agreement on animal disease control.
4. The World Bank provided background information on its food safety and SPS projects for
FY2001 focusing on the organization of workshops in developing countries.  The Bank also outlined
the work under way on policy aspects of trade-related capacity building and technical assistance
involving a framework for complementary assistance to developing countries, including in standards,
and a standards development facility to coordinate technical assistance in SPS and related areas.  The
Bank also reported several initiatives relating to standards development, capacity-building, including
in the context of the Integrated Framework, and trade.
5. The FAO/WHO Codex Secretariat indicated that the competence for technical assistance with
regard to food safety issues rested with the Codex parent organizations, FAO and WHO.  However,the Codex Alimentarius Commission had agreed in principle on the establishment of a FAO/WHO
Trust Fund (or Codex Participation Trust Fund) to facilitate effective participation of developing
countries in the work of Codex, including capacity building in this area.  The Codex Commission had
also agreed that coordination with the "Food Safety and Quality Facility for Least Developed
Countries" initiated by FAO and supported by WHO would be considered in the process, although
                                                     
1 See WT/GC/45 for the report of the first informal meeting.  The second report, WT/GC/46,
summarized information provided by the relevant financial and technical organizations.WT/GC/54
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these were separate entities.  The Codex Secretariat stressed that the participation of developing
countries in the work of Codex had significantly in creased in recent years, especially following the
conclusion of the SPS and TBT Agreements.
6. WHO reported that food safety was one of W HO's top eleven budget priorities.  WHO was in
the process of developing a Global WHO Food Safety  Strategy comprising the overarching principle
that health-based international food safety standards and their adoption by governments will improve
the safety of food and also facilitate food trade, thereby promoting sustainable development.  The
WHO Regions had been adopting Regional Food safety strategies that stressed the importance of
comprehensive risk-based legislative food safety frameworks reflecting Codex standards and other
international obligations such as the SPS Agreement.  WHO had extensive experience in technical
assistance activities, including to facilitate the pa rticipation of developing countries in the Codex
standard-setting activities and to increase understanding of the SPS Agreement and other multilateraltrade agreements related to health.  FAO and WHO were planning to organize a Global Forum of
Food Safety Regulators to get developing country officials together with the experts from developed
countries (the meeting, initially scheduled for 22-24 October 2001, was postponed to early 2002).
WHO is also working jointly with WTO on a handbook on trade and health issues, and has recently
concluded a policy training course in cooperation with WTO.
7. Discussions among the five organizations identified the following specific difficulties which
need to be addressed:  identification and development of sufficient expertise in many developing
countries to permit their active and effective participation in expert groups which frequently represent
the first step in the development of international stan dards;  the need to develop the capacity of these
countries to implement the standards within their own territories, recognizing that implementation
capacity of developing countries varies considerably from country-to-country as well as between
standard-setting organizations;  the need to identify  the type of actions required taking into account
these differences.  It was also noted that capac ity-building requires investment in infrastructure,
human capital, and other building blocks of modern standards systems.
8. The five organizations agreed on the need to establish a mechanism to ensure coordination of
the resources available to the relevant international organizations and to avoid potential overlap.  It
was also noted that several regional organizations had significant experience with regard to capacity
building in developing countries and that such experience should be taken into account in the
coordination effort.
9. In light of these considerations, the representatives of the five organizations agreed to develop
a joint, formal statement of common objectives relating to the participation of developing countries in
the development and application of sanitary and phytosanitary measures.  This joint statement may bemade at the Doha Ministerial Conference.
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