WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SPS/GEN/425
18 September 2003
(03-5000)
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Original:  Spanish
SPECIAL MEETING ON THE STRENGTHENING
OF NATIONAL NOTIFICATION AUTHORITIES
Communication from Argentina
1. Annex B of the SPS Agreement and the recently approved Decision G/SPS/7/Rev.2 impose
on Members a series of transparency obligations, effective compliance with which serves usefully to
prevent the creation of unnecessary trade barriers.  Obviously, not all WTO Members are equal in
their ability to discharge the obligations undertaken, nor do they all suffer the impact of trade
restrictions in the same way.  Developing countries face serious difficulties in implementing atnational level the procedures necessary to guarantee effective compliance with the commitments
undertaken.  This document describes some of the efforts made at national level in this connection,
and also seeks to identify the difficulties encountered in that process.
ANALYSIS OF NOTIFICATIONS RECEIVED2. The work of the Argentine national agency responsible for notifications is coordinated by the
Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries a nd Food (SAGPyA), while the Department of Food is
responsible for the focal point and the National Notification Authority (hereafter NNA), with
technical support from the National Directorate for Agri-food Markets, handles the day-to-day
management of the notifications received.
3. Given the importance of effective implementation of Decision G/SPS/7/Rev.2 on
transparency and the large quantity of notifications received each week by the WTO Secretariat, amechanism for review of the content of notificatio ns has been introduced at national level for the
purpose of prioritizing the processing of those whic h are of outstanding significance, either because of
the importance of their subject-matter or on account of their potential commercial impact on
Argentine exports.
4. First of all, th e NNA prepares a list sp ecifying each individual notification submitted the
week before, the submitting country, the subject and the deadline for comments.  This list is
transmitted to the relevant official sectors and to the entire domestic private sector engaged in foreign
trade.  At the same time, the NNA identifies those notifications on the list which are of outstanding
significance, either because of their subject-matter or on account of their potentially negative impact
on Argentine exports.  On that basis, the notifying Member is requested to provide the full text of thestandard notified, and a summary thereof is prepared, indicating the most noteworthy aspects.
5. The summary in question, together with a set of indicative questions designed to facilitate the
necessary analysis, is submitted to the official technical bodies and to the private sector engaged in
marketing the product concerned, for analysis of the technical conformity of the notified draft.  This
study is carried out in the light of the existence of international reference standards and scientificevidence sufficient to justify the proposed measure.  If the study gives rise to doubts regarding the
consistency of the draft with the disciplines of the WTO/SPS Agreement, the NNA sends a
questionnaire or comments to the notifying Me mber, in order to clear up any uncertainties.G/SPS/GEN/425
Page 2
6. The results thus far have been positive, although difficulties have come to light as regards the
effective and efficient handling of the focal point's work.
Difficulties:
• Requirement of trained human resources assigned exclusively to
implementation of the notification procedure, who are in short supply in most
developing countries;
• the notifying Member does not always respond to requests for the texts of
notified standards in good time and in the required form;
• the texts are often only available in non-WTO languages, and no resources
are available for translation;
• as pointed out in the document submitted by China (G/SPS/W/378), the
notifying Member does not always offer a time-limit of at least 60 days for
comments;
• when comments are made, a reply (positive or negative) from the notifying
Member is difficult to come by, so that the only possible alternative, wherethe draft involves a restriction on trade, is to submit the question in the SPS
Committee of the WTO.
ANALYSIS OF DRAFT NATIONAL SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES
7. The determination of the need to notify draft sanitary and phytosanitary measures to the WTO
Secretariat is one of the transparency commitments most difficult to implement for developingcountries.
8. Argentina is not unfamiliar with the difficulties encountered by many countries in this
connection, which are not always related to the level of development, as was shown by China in its
submission (G/SPS/GEN/378).
9. The statistical breakdown clearly reveals a significant disparity in the number of notifications
submitted by the various WTO Members;  in fact, some Members have never submitted a notification.
Even where notifications are submitted, they do not always conform to the requirements laid down in
Decision G/SPS/7/Rev.2.
10. This clearly shows the need for a reassessment at national level of the system whereby draft
sanitary and phytosanitary measures are analysed for approval by the competent authorities, with aview to fulfilling the commitments undertaken.
Difficulties:
• Most national notification authorities in the developing countries have great
difficulty in analysing and determining which draft measures should benotified to the WTO Secretariat.
• in most cases, more than one government agency is responsible for
elaborating sanitary and phytosanitary standards;G/SPS/GEN/425
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• the different agencies at national level lack the coordination needed to enable
the focal point to comply with notific ation commitments within the time and
in the form required;
• lack of training in the ordinary legal departments of the agencies which
produce sanitary and phytosanitary regulations, for the purpose of identifying
those cases where draft standards are to be notified in accordance with WTOobligations;
• lack of resources for the employment of staff specifically dedicated to
replying to Members' enquiries within the time and in the form required.This task is an additional burden for existing staff who carry out the duties
originally assigned to them.
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