. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/N/ARG/124
8 August 2003
(03-4159)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  Spanish
NOTIFICATION
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6.
1. Member to Agreement notifying:  ARGENTINA
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):
2. Agency responsible:   Common Market Group - Technical Subgroup No. 3 "Technical
Regulations and Conformity Assessment"
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers and E-mail and Web site
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above:   idem   National
enquiry point.
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [  X ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable,  otherwise national tariff heading.
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):   Food products
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   MERCOSUR
Technical Regulation on Packaged Food Portions for Nutritional Labelling Purposes
(27 pages, in Spanish / Portuguese).
6. Description of content:
Household measure: capacity or size, percentage of measurement, corresponding fraction;
Methodology for determining portion size: food group, energy value, energy value per
portion;
Instructions for using the portion table and criteria for its application to nutritional labelling:Tolerance criteria (individually packaged food; products packaged together, in portions or
in consumption units);
Partly cooked and partly prepared food for consumption;
Concentrated, powdered and dehydrated food products for the preparation of food requiring
reconstitution with or without the addition of other ingredients;
Foodstuffs usually used as ingredients;
Foodstuffs with two separable elements;Foodstuffs with inedible parts;
Foodstuffs in containers with several units;
Compound foodstuffs;
Table (pages 17 to 27).
This Technical Regulation concerns the nutritional labelling of foodstuffs produced andmarketed in the territory of or traded betw een MERCOSUR States parties and imports from
outside MERCOSUR, packaged in the absence of the client and ready to be offered for sale
to the consumer.G/TBT/N/ARG/124
Page 2
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:   
Protection of consumers' right to information on the characteristics and nutritional
composition of the food which they purchase and the need to establish the size of packaged
food portions for nutritional labelling purposes.
This draft Resolution supplements MERCOSUR Technical Regulation on
Nutritional Labelling for Packaged Food - MERCOSUR Common Market Group
Resolution No. 21/2002.
8. Relevant documents:   MERCOSUR/XV Technical Subgroup (SGT) No. 3/Draft
Resolution No. 04/03.
9. Proposed date of adoption:
Proposed date of entry into force: } Not indicated.
10. Final date for comments:   25 September 2003
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [ X], or address, telephone and fax
numbers and E-mail and Web site addresses, if available, of other body:
Focal Point of the Argentine Republic
National Directorate of Domestic Trade (DNCI)
Avda. J. A. Roca 651, 4th floor, Sector 2
(C1067ABB) Buenos AiresTel.:  (54 11) 4349-4067
Fax:  (54 11) 4349-4072
E-mail:  mercsgt3@mecon.gov.ar
Web site:  http://www.puntofo cal.gov.ar/MERCOSUR_sgt.asp