RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/ACC/TJK/9 
27 February 2004 
 
 (04-0862) 
Working Party on the Accession  
of the Republic of Tajikistan. Original:   English 
 
 
 
ACCESSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF TAJIKISTAN 
 
Checklist of Illustrative Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary (SPS) Issues in the  
Accession of the Republic of Tajikistan to the WTO  
 
  The following Checklist of Illu strative SPS Issues is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of the Republic of Tajikistan.  
 
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 WT/ACC/TJK/9 
Page 2 Commitments (by the time of accession) St atus of Implementation and Progress 
1. Standstill: the introduction of new standards, animal 
health regulations and food safety regulations shall 
conform to SPS Agreem ent principles.   Tajikistan does not intend and to introduce any new standards, animal health regulations and food safety regulations, 
which do not comply with the SPS Agreement principles.  Since 1993, the Veterinary Service of the Republic of 
Tajikistan is a member of the International Office of Epizootics (IOE). 
2. Establishment and operation of a single Contact Point 
for Information ("enquiry point"). 
 (Article 7 and Annex B.3.) 
 Main Department on Veterinary under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Tajikistan is responsible for 
development of international cooperation in the area of ve terinary.  State Inspectorate On  Quarantine of Plants under 
the Ministry of Agriculture is the agency responsible, in ter alia, for control over the implementation of commitments 
under the international agreements of Tajikistan on plant quarantine.  Currently, the Government of Tajikistan is in 
the process of establishing a single contact point for the pur poses of the SPS Agreement with respect to sanitary and 
phytosanitary measures.   
3. Transparency: notification and access to 
documentation: (Articles 7 and Annex B, Also G/SPS/7)  
- identification of authority responsible for making 
notifications to the WTO an d ensuring transparency 
obligations are met on an ongoing basis; (Annex B.5.(b) and Annex B.10) Currently, the Government of Tajikistan is in the process of establishing a single governmental authority responsible 
for implementing notification requirements with respect to sanitary and phytosanitary measures  
  
- establish guidance or law requiring publication of 
proposed measures at an early stage for comment; 
(Annex B.5(a)) Article 45 of the Law On Normative Legal Acts provides fo r the right of bodies drafting the normative legal acts to 
publish draft legislation for public discussion.  Although pr oviding for such a right, the law does not obligate agencies 
proposing the legislation to publish them for comments.   
- provision in law or administrative procedure to 
provide copies of proposed measures to WTO 
Members; (Annex B.5.(c)) Article 49 of the Law On Normative Legal Acts provides for the possibility of submitting the draft legislation to 
international organizations for review and comment. 
- require in law or administrative procedure, a 
reasonable period of time for comment from Members 
and the public, and establishment of a process to take 
comments into account w ithout discrimination. 
 (Annex B.5(d)) Article 45 of the Law On Normative Legal Acts states that, in case the draft legislation was published for public 
discussion, comments received are studied,  analyzed and acceptable comments are taken into account in revising the 
proposed legislation.     
4. Necessity: measures are applied only to the extent 
necessary to protect human, animal or plant health.   
(Article 2.2) 
 Goal of the Law On Quarantine of Plants, as indicated in its  Article 1, is to provide prot ection to plants and products 
of plant origin from quarantine objects.  Article 8 of the Law prohibits application of phytosanitary quarantine 
measures and restrictions of any other form in solving tasks that are not related to implementing measures for protection of plants from quarantine objects. 
According to Article 4 of the Veterinary Law state policy in  the area of veterinary is aimed at creating conditions 
which allow prevention of animal diseases, providing protection for population from diseases that are common for human and animals.             
5. Regulations Based on Science: regulations governing 
animal and plant health and food safety shall be based 
on scientific evidence. (A rticles 2.2, 3.3 and 5.2) Although the legislation of Tajikistan do es not specifically mention this principl e, in practice results of scientific 
research are used in developing veterinary and phytosanita ry regulations.  According to Article 4 of the Veterinary 
Law, state support for the scientific research in developing new methods of diagnosis, prophylactics and treatment of animal diseases is provided.      
  WT/ACC/TJK/9
 Page 3Commitments (by the time of accession) St atus of Implementation and Progress 
6. Harmonization: to the extent possible, members shall 
follow international standards, guidelines, and 
recommendations in establishing SPS measures. (Articles 3.1, 3.3 and 3.4) The following provisions are included in Tajik legislation in this respect: 
Article 21 of the Veterinary Law states that “Safety norms of fodders and fodder additives shall not differ from the 
respective norms established by the international standards and norms of international veterinary organizations to 
which Tajikistan is a member”.   
Article 26 of the same law states that “Animals and products  of animal origin, fodder an d fodder additives are allowed 
to enter to the territory of Tajikistan if veterinary legislation requirements an d conditions of international agreements 
of Tajikistan in the area of veterinary are met.   
Article 8 of the Plant Quarantine Law requir es that entry into and tr ansportation in the territory of Tajikistan shall be 
allowed if plant quarantine rules and norms established by  the legislation of Tajiki stan, as well as norms of 
international agreements on cooper ation in the area of qu arantine accepted by Tajikistan, are met.  
7.  Equivalence: members shall recognize different 
measures that achieve the same level of protection. 
(Article 4) There are no provisions in the existing Tajik legislation concerning equivalence.  
Being member of the IOE, Tajikistan sh all conduct consultations is case of any differences in sanitary measures 
approaches and reach agreement to  recognize the equivalence of concrete sanitary measures.    
8.  Risk Assessment: developing scientific evidence and 
conducting risk assessments to ensure that measures 
are based on science and applied only to the extent 
necessary to protect health. (Article 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3.) There are no provisions in the existing Tajik legislation concerning risk assessment. 
9.  Regional conditions: measures take into account the 
regional characteristics both of the areas from which 
products originate and the areas for which they are 
destined.  (Article 6 and Annexes A.6 and A.7) There are no provisions in the existing Tajik legislation concerning regional conditions. 
10.  Non-discrimination:  measures do not arbitrarily or 
unjustifiably discriminate between different members 
or between domestic and foreign suppliers. (Article 2.3, and Annex C.1(a) and (d) There are no provisions in the Tajik legislation, which discriminate between different members and between domestic 
and foreign suppliers, except for the fees for veterinary and phytosanitary certification, which differ for domestic, 
CIS, and other foreign suppliers.   To the extent that these differences are not justified under paragraph 1 (f) of Annex C to the Agreements on 
Application of Sanitary and Ph ytosanitary Measures, they will be adjusted before accession. 
11. Control, inspection and approval procedures: ensure 
that procedures, including systems for approval of the use of additives or for establishing tolerances for 
contaminants in foods, beverages or feedstuffs 
comply with the Agreement.  (Article 8 and Annex C.) Some of the provisions of the Annex C are reflected in the Regulations On the Stat e Quarantine Service of the 
Republic of Tajikistan, approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 38 of 4 February 2002.  
The text of this Resolution will be transmitted to WTO.  
 
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