. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/EEC/49 
21 January 2004 
 (04-0201) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English 
   
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6. 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
 
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):         
2. Agency responsible:   European Commission 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, 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:         
European Commission, 
EC-TBT Enquiry Point, Fax: 0032 2 299 80 43, E-mail: ec-tbt@cec.eu.int
 
 
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [ X], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:         
This measure has also been notified u nder the SPS agreement (see under point 7). 
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in  addition, where applicable):   Foods for particular 
nutritional uses        
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   Draft Commission 
Directive derogating from Directive 2001/15/EC to  postpone the application of the prohibition 
of trade to certain products (4 pages ava ilable in English, French and Spanish). 
6. Description of content:   This draft Commission Directive (derogating from Directive 
2001/15/EC to postpone the application of the proh ibition of trade to ce rtain products) permits 
Member States to contin ue to allow in their te rritory the trade in pr oducts containing certain 
substances added for specific nu tritional purposes in foods for pa rticular nutritional uses until 
31 December 2006.  The annex to the draft Dire ctive lists fifteen substances for which a 
derogation may be granted. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
To ensure a high level of protection of public health and the free circulation of products, 
Commission Directive 2001/15/EC of 15 Februa ry 2001 on substances that may be added for 
specific nutritional purposes in f oods for particular nutritional us es specifies certain categories 
of substances and mentions for each of them th e chemical substances that may be used in the 
manufacture of foods for partic ular nutritional uses.  The meas ure was notified to the WTO in 
2000 (G/TBT/Notif.00/95)).   G/TBT/N/EEC/49 
Page 2  
 
At the time of adoption of the Directive 2001/15/EC a number  of substances added for 
specific nutritional purposes in foods for partic ular nutritional uses could not be included in 
the Annex to the Directive because they had not  been evaluated by the scientific advisory 
body.  Since 2001 not all the substances concer ned have been evaluated.  The proposed 
measure would permit the use of the substances  to continue in certain Member States.  
Products containing the substances listed in th e Draft Directive are on the market and it is 
necessary that the measures ar e transposed before 1 April 2004 in order to avoid that the 
prohibition provided for in Directive 2001/15/EC becomes applicable to the substances for a 
limited period of time which would ca use an undue disruption of the market. 
Both the original Directive 2001/15/EEC and the present draft have been notified under the 
SPS Agreement (G/SPS/N/EEC /80 and G/SPS/N/EEC/230). 
8. Relevant documents:   European Commission docum ent SANCO/5144/2003rev.2 Proposal 
for Draft Commission Directive derogating from Directive 2001/15/EC to postpone the 
application of the prohibition of trade to certain  products (available in English, French and 
Spanish) 
When adopted it will be published in the Official Journa l available at:  
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/oj/index.html . 
9. Proposed date of adoption:  January 2004 
Proposed date of entry into force:  20 days after publication in the Official Journal of the 
European Union 
10. Final date for comments:   20 days from date of notification 
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [    ] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:        
Commission, 
EC-TBT Enquiry Point, Fax:  0032 299 80 43, E-mail: ec-tbt@cec.eu.int