G/SPS/GEN/2172  
 
13 November 2023 
(23-7623) Page: 1/5 
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures  Original: English  
 
GSO REPORT  ON SPS ACTIVITIES  
GSO REPORT TO THE WTO  COMMITTEE ON  SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES  
The follow ing communication, received on 12 November 2023, is being circulated at the request of 
the secretariat of the  GCC Standardization Organization  (GSO). 
 
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1  INTRODUCTION  
1.1.  GCC Standardization Organization (GSO)  is a non -profit (intergovernmental)  Standardization 
Organization, establishe d by the resolution of the GCC Supreme Council  (22nd Session, Muscat, 
Oman, 30 -31 December 2001) and became operational  in May 2004 , whose membership consisted 
of the governments of the Kingdom of Bahrain, the State of Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the Kingdom of 
Saudi  Arabia , the United Arab Emirates , and Yemen , which joined GSO in January  2010. 
2  GSO MISSION  
2.1.  The GSO mission is to assist the States of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the 
Gulf (GCC)  to achieve the objectives set forth in its Charter and in the GCC Economic Agreement by 
unifying the various standardization activities and following up on implementation and compliance 
matters  in cooperation and coordinatio n with the standardization bodies in the member States to 
develop the production and service sectors, foster intra -GCC trade, protect consumer s, 
the environment and public health, enhance the GCC economy and its competitiveness and meet 
the requirements of the Gulf Custom Union and Gulf Common Market.  
3  GSO GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE  
3.1.  The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) : GSO is working under the umbrella of GCC as one of 
its organizations.  
3.2.  The Ministerial Committee for Standardizations affairs (MC) : is the highest authority of 
GSO, vested with all powers relating to its functioning. The MC consists of respective Ministers of 
the Commerce, Industry, and Invest ment in GCC member States.  
3.3.  The GSO Technical Council (TC) : consists of the respective Directors of the National 
Standards Bodies (NSBs) of GSO member States, and reports to (MC).  
3.4.  The Presidency : is headed by the President and consists of GSO Professional S taff to facilitate 
the activities of GSO, and reports to (MC) and (TC).  
3.5.  The GSO Steering and Technical Committees (STCs) : consist of technical experts 
representing each National Standards Body of the member States. The STCs report to the GSO (TC) 
and are r esponsible for the planning, coordination and monitoring of all the technical work of GSO 
in standards, conformity assessment, metrology, and notification.  G/SPS/GEN/2172  
 
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  4  GSO STRATEGY 2021 -2025  
4.1.  GSO has defined its Strategic Plan for the year 2025, approved by the Ministe rial Committee 
for Standardization, and that is to be the trusted regional organization of excellence in 
standardization activities, and the first enabler for the Gulf Common Market. To achieve its vision, 
GSO relies on the successful implementation of thr ee main strategic themes, the first of which is 
organizational excellence - "Accurate implementation of GSO's activities and operations with high 
efficiency, lowest costs and on time, to provide value -added services to GCC member States". The 
second theme is being a regional organization pioneer – where GSO becomes a major and reliable 
reference in GCC member States for standardization activities by positioning itself within the global 
map of standardization organizations and bodies, and building effective s trategic partnerships to 
support trade, industry and economy in GCC member States. Finally, the third theme is to strengthen 
the economic integration among the GCC member States – by way of GSO's contribution to achieving 
a common Gulf market and economic growth for member States through standardization activities, 
conformity procedures, and unified and effective control over products, as the first enablers of the 
Gulf Common Market. Moreover, all GSO programmes, projects, and activities have been aligned 
with these themes.  
5  STANDARDS AND METROLOGY  
5.1.  GSO has developed more than 26,927 Unified Gulf Standards and Technical Regulations ,  
including about 1,243 mand atory technical regulations. Almost 63% of GSO standards are adopted 
from (ISO), 20% of those standards are adopted from (IEC) as endorsement, 4% of food standards 
are adopted from Codex Alimentarius, about 8% prepared by GSO, and the remaining percentage 
is adopted from other regional and international organizations. GSO adopted ISO/IEC directives for 
technical work as a basis for its own directives to ensure that GSO technical committees follow 
international practices in the standards development process.  At present, there are 44 GSO/TCs and 
TCs sub -committees for standards development representing all GSO member States and covering 
most of the GCC sectors.  
5.2.  GSO established and hosted the Gulf Association for Metrology ( GULFMET ) as a Regional 
Metrology Organization (RMO), bringing together National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) of 
GCC countries. The International Committee of Weights and Measures (CIPM) in BIPM decided to 
grant GULFMET full membership in the Joint Committee of the Regional Metrology Organizations and 
the BIPM (JCRB), with a voice and the right to vote in CIPM meeting No. 110 dated on 22 24 Jun e 
2021.  
5.3.  The GulfMet members are GSO Member States in addition to associate members (Bosnia and 
Herzegovin a; Egypt ; Türkiye; South Korea ; Hong Kong,  China;  and Iraq ). 
5.4.  More than 31 Interlaboratory comparisons (ILCs) were organised by GULFMET to verify that a  
laboratory provides correct results within the stated measurement of uncertainty.  
6  CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT  
6.1.  GSO developed the GCC Conformity Assessment Scheme  in pursuance of reducing the technical 
barriers of trade and facilitating the free movement of commodities across borders within the GCC 
member States and the rest of the world. Within the framework of the Gulf System for Safety 
Monitor ing of Products in the GCC Common Market, GSO has issued Horizontal Technical 
Regulations, Vertical Technical Regulations, as well as other Technical Guides. Three Technical 
Regulations have been implemented with the Gulf Conformity Marking , namely, the GSO Technical 
Regulation on Toys the GSO Technical Regulation on Low Voltage Electrical Equipment and 
Appliances, and recently issued the GSO Technical Regulation for Water -Saving Products.  
6.2.  GSO has also deve loped the Gulf Conformity Tracking System (GCTS)  which has proven to be 
a great success in the implementation of the GSO LV technical regulation, and helps to track both 
the suppl y chain and technical conformity.  
6.3.  GSO has developed the Electronic Conformity Certificate Scheme (ECCS)  to facilitate the 
certific ations procedures, enhance the quality of serves, to shorten the time of review and to have 
a detailed data for the benefit of GSO stakeholders. The main objective for GSO Certification Scheme G/SPS/GEN/2172  
 
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  is to verify the compliance of the related products with GSO te chnical Regulations to assure of their 
safety for users and to protect the environment in the region. GSO issued 458,589 conformity 
certificates for vehicles, tiers, and motorcycles.  
6.4.  GSO is the notifying authority by decision of the Board of Directors, May  2013. GSO approved 
89 notified bodies in many countries around the world. More than 51,320 products have received 
the G -Mark through more than 59,478 conformity certificates issued through the GCC Conformity 
Tracking System . Additionally, 1,019 free Proficiency Testing Programs (PTs) for 688 GCC 
laboratories have been organized as one of the main activities of the Gulf Association for Laboratories 
(GCCLAB) , which is an open network for laboratories and supporting companies operating in the 
GCC member States. It was establish ed as an initiative of the GSO and the recommendations of the 
first GCC Conference for Laboratories Proficiency (Dubai, 13 March 2013).  
7  CAPACITY BUILDING  
7.1.  GSO invests in strengthening the knowledge, skills, and know -how of specialists in NSBs 
through extens ive and blended training and technical assistance programs. GSO established the GCC 
Standardization Training Center  to meet the needs and requirements of GSO members, and to help 
them participate effectively in the development of international standards, as well as towards 
increasing their competence in good standardization practices (GSPs). An annual training plan is 
designed based on t he needs of NSBs, and training is to be delivered through highly qualified experts 
in cooperation with international and regional standardization organizations.  
7.2.  More than 16 ,000 participants since 2007 and more than 600 training courses have been 
organized  by GSO in cooperation with member States.  
8  INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) SOLUTIONS - INTEGRATION WITH INTERNATIONAL 
AND REGIONAL ORGANIZATIONS  
8.1.  GSO has developed many platforms and e -services and continuously keeps working on their 
content development and improvements to meet the needs of the member States covering all 
standardization activities.  
8.2.  ISO and GSO have organized many bilateral virtual meeting s and workshops related to ISO  API 
Gateway and ISO Global Directory, Standardization Identity Federation (SIF), and Standards 
Authoring using XML.  
8.3.  GSO IT Systems are integrated with ISO API Gateway. Starting negotiations with "Inera" for 
using their "eXtyl es" word add -in to convert GSO Standards from Word to XML. Work is still in 
progress on this initiative.  
8.4.  Within the adoption agreement signed between GSO and IEC in Shanghai 2019, the IEC 
provides the GSO access to the FTP server of all IEC standards with a generic watermark and via 
the library server. GSO and IEC have already started their discussion about using the IEC API 
Gateway to access the metadata and unprotected standards on behalf of GSO members, for which 
GSO is hosting their National Standards S tores, such as Oman and Kingdom of Bahrain.  
8.5.  Also, GSO signed copyright license agreements with the European Committee for 
Standardization and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CEN -CENELEC), 
by which both sides have full access to  each other's standards metadata, and integrated with the 
(CEN CENELEC) API Gateway. GSO IT Systems are integrated with ASTM Standard Publishing 
Application (SPA) API as well. Such international and regional cooperation enables GSO to develop 
a unified pla tform to search different standards catalogues and facilitate the adoption process for 
standards at the GCC level.  
9  INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION  
9.1.  The GSO, with the objective to establish mutually beneficial cooperation with the relevant 
international and region al organizations, continues to promote international standards through 
73 MoUs and Cooperation agreements  with many international and regional organizations.  G/SPS/GEN/2172  
 
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  9.2.  GSO is an observer member in many international organizations, including, the International 
Standardization Organization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the Codex 
Alimentarius (CAC), World Trade Organization (WTO) TBT/SPS, the I nternational Organization of 
Legal Metrology (OMIL), CEN CENELEC, Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries 
(SMIIC), Arabic Industrial Development and Mining Organization (AIDSMO), Pan American 
Standards Commission (COPANT), African Organizat ion for Standardization (ARSO), the Southern 
African Development Community (SADC). GSO is a full member of the International 
Telecommunication Union (ITU), and a member of the Consultation Group to the WOAH Observatory, 
and The Energy and Carbon Advisory C ouncil (International Code Council).  
9.3.  GSO is participating in many key international and regional meetings within the framework of 
the MoUs signed with its partners.  
9.4.  GSO participated in the regular meeting of the SPS Committee, held virtually on 23 -25 March  
2022, as well as at the informal session on 23 March 2022 and the Thematic Session on trade 
facilitative approaches to pesticide MRLs, including substances not approved for use in an import 
market on 22 March 2022.  
9.5.  GSO participated in many SPS online meet ings with other related organizations during the 
period (March -May 2022).  
9.6.  GSO submitted joint notifications of some SPS draft standards on behalf of its member States.  
9.7.  GSO updated the technical regulation (GSO 1016) related to microbiological standards 
(NOT Published Standard) which were approved by the relevant Technical Committee during the 
Gulf Food Week (28 March 2022) and were preceded by a workshop for the committee devoted to 
discussing the project in its final form (2 March 2022).  
9.8.  GSO organized "The  6th GCC Laboratory Proficiency Conference" under the patronage of 
H.E. The Minister of Commerce, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in cooperation with Saudi Standards, 
Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO), that took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 
18-19 October 2022, under the theme "Laboratory Proficiency for Food Security and Sustainability". 
The two -day Laboratory Proficiency Conference targeted 300 officials and specialists of laboratories 
in public and private sectors and was honored by ISO SG, IAF Ch air, ILAC Vice Chair, (IAAC) Chair, 
SMIIC SG, ARSO SG, GAC DG, and high -level experts from ISO, GSO, GOIC, ASTM, SFDA, Siemens 
(Middle East), SAC, and GSO member States.  
9.9.  GSO issued 241 standards and technical regulations in the food sector during 2022 and 2023:  
− 137 Gulf Standards;  
− 53 Gulf technical regulations;  
− 29 translations of standards and technical regulations;  
− 22 technical amendments and typographical corrections.  
9.10.   Some posts and activities attended during the last period:  
− WTO SPS Committee meetings an d accompanying events, 22 -25 March 2022 (virtually);  
− Several workshops with Codex and the Regional Near East Committee of the 
Codex  Alimentarius Commission, CCNE – Codex;  
− Several workshops for Arab countries in the field of encouraging participation in Cod ex 
activities throughout the year;  
− Special Halal Conference of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) (online) 
14 February 2022;  
− Organizing the Gulf Food Week and the meetings of the Food and Halal Standards 
Committees (Riyadh, March + November 2022);  
− Nutrition And Food Safety Summit - Nutrition Days (Dubai, 23 -26 May 2022), organized by 
the European Union;  
− Annual meeting of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC 45) Rome - November 2022, 
and the meetings of some technical committees of the Codex Alimentarius Commission ; 
− Meetings of the Arab initiative for points of contact with the Codex Alimentarius Commission 
(several meetings);  G/SPS/GEN/2172  
 
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  − Training programme on the activities of participation in Codex work (Tunisia, 
September  2022; Jordan, Octobe r 2022) ; 
− Participating in organizing the USDA Nutrition and Food Safety Summit Series 2: The Safety 
of Food Additives, in cooperation with USDA, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water 
Resources, Michigan University, American Chamber of Commerce (AMCH AM), and 
USA embassy in Riyadh. Over 150 food regulators and government officials from all 
GCC countries, USDA Officials, speakers from FAO -JECFA, FDA, Michigan State University, 
food additives industry, and AmCham Dubai Food & Beverage Regulations Committ ee. 
This summit was under the patronage of H.E. Dr. Saud Al -Habsi, Oman’s Minister of 
Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources. Participants have reached mutual understanding 
on numbers of food regulatory issues and agreed to Keep the dialogue open on ot her key 
issues to further facilitate the trade and maintain food safety. Science based regulations and 
referencing international regulations like Codex were the optimum achievements of this 
summit ; 
− Participating in organizing "The 2nd Arab CODEX Colloquium ", Muscat, 10 -11 June 2023, 
in cooperation with USDA, GFORSS, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources, 
Food Safety and Quality Center, Sultanate of Oman. This event was attended by the 
Chairperson of CODEX and the representatives of the US C ODEX Office (USDA), WHO, and 
GSO. The Colloquium aimed to review the accomplishments of the Arab Code Initiative and 
the progress of the Working Groups created through the Arab Codex Initiative. 
The Colloquium had an open discussion with the CODEX Chairper son on the engagement of 
the Arab Region in Codex Proceedings, Future Opportunities ; 
− A bilateral Meeting was held between the GSO president Mr. Saud Al -Khusaibi and 
Codex  Chair, Dr. Steven Wearne to discuss the cooperation between the two organization to 
enhance the work of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and offer the regional technical 
and capacity building support to the food safety and fair trade, Muscat, 11 June 2023 ; 
− Forming the Gulf Codex Alimentarius Working Group (GSO/TC05 -CODEX -WG1), affiliated to 
the Gulf Technical Committee for Food and Agricultural Standards (TC05); which held its 
first meeting during the 2nd ARAB CODEX COLLOQUIUM, 10 -11 June 2023, Muscat, in the 
presence of Codex Chair, Dr. Steven Wearne ; 
− Supporting organizing and participating in the "Oman 6th Food Safety and Quality 
Conference", Muscat, 12 -14 June 2023, under the patronage and Presence of 
H.E. the Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Investment Promotion; also, with the 
presence of H.E . the Mi nister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources, GSO President. 
AIDSMO DG, CODEX Chairperson, and representatives of US CODEX USDA, and UNIDO, with 
45 papers, 60 experts, and 400 participants ; 
− Organizing the unified Gulf Halal system workshop, 22 June  2023, Muscat. Many regional 
standardization organizations have been invited, such as AIDSMO, GCC Accreditation Center 
(GAC), Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC), International 
Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA) is a subsidiary organ o f the Organization of Islamic Cooperation 
(OIC), and other relevant parties ; 
− GSO will organize a workshop titled "Participation in CODEX Meetings: Best Practices", for 
GCC CODEX Contact Points, Qatar, Doha, 19 -20 September 2023 ; 
− GSO participated in the WTO  National Workshop on the Agreement on the Application of 
Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures and the Technical Barriers To Trade (TBT) 
Agreement, organized by WTO and the Ministry of Commerce in Bahrain, from 23 -26 October 
2023. GSO delivered a pres entation on the Gulf Unified Notification System for TBT and SPS. 
The Workshop was presented by the WTO TBT and SPS experts and with the participation of 
ISO and Codex and the Commercial Attaché, Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Bahrain 
to the UN and ot her international organizations in Geneva. The interactive workshop aimed 
at enhancing Bahrain's overall understanding of the Agreements, with special emphasis on 
the transparency provisions and on the ongoing discussions in the SPS and TBT Committees. 
Among other things, the hands -on training exercises will be geared at searching for 
information using the ePing SPS&TBT Platform  and using its other functions.  
9.11.   For more information on GSO  Outreach Reviews, please click here. 
 
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