G/SPS/GEN/1998  
 
4 March  2022 
(22-2006) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures  Original: English  
 
PROCEDURE TO MONITOR THE PROCESS OF INTERNATIONAL HARMONIZATION  
SUBMISSION  BY NEW ZEALAND  
The following document , received on 2 March 2022, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of New Zealand . 
 
_______________  
 
 
1.  New Zealand presented its first proposal on this topic as document G/SPS/GEN/1851  in the 
November 2020 Committee meeting. Members and International Standard Setting Bodies (ISSBs) 
were invited to propose ideas and suggestions on how the Committee could proactively e xplore this 
topic. Subsequently, New Zealand submitted document G/SPS/GEN/1877  which presented some 
specific ideas for consideration by the Committee. There was overall support for the New Zealand 
proposal. Taking the comments from other Members, New Zealand subsequently circulated 
document G/SPS/GEN/1915 . This document proposed several areas of focus, which p rovided the 
basis for the thematic session on international harmonization held as part of the SPS November  2021 
meeting.  
2.  At that thematic session, several Members agreed to the importance of having additional in -depth 
discussions on the next steps.  
3.  New Zea land believes there are various avenues to assist the ISSBs in more effectively 
monitoring the use of the implementation of international standards as laid out in Articles 3.5 and 
12.4 of the SPS Agreement. New Zealand would like to propose that the SPS Co mmittee further 
explore and discuss in more detail the following ideas for action and delivery in 2022 -2023:  
• Reviewing (in consultation with the ISSBs ) the notification template to gather more specific 
information on international harmonization and ensure that useful data can be extracted 
from the WTO/SPS Information Management System . In addition, discuss with the ISSBs 
what previous analysis may have been done to date;  
• A review/analysis of Specific Trade Concerns (STCs) highlighting the themes and evidence 
of harmonization to ISSB standards;  
• SPS Committee to receive annual reports from the ISSBs on their efforts to support 
implementation among their me mbers, of adopted standards, and any common challenges 
that may be faced; this could be either written or oral;  
• Annual discussion platform through a standard agenda item, for Members to make voluntary 
statements to the SPS Committee highlighting how they a re contributing to harmonizing 
with international standards with examples or case studies of how they have based their 
sanitary or phytosanitary measures on international standards, guidelines or 
recommendations. These s tatements would provide a snapshot o f national approaches to 
harmonization with international standards. A statement template could be developed to 
provide Members guidance on content, and ensure the information provided can be reported 
on in a consistent and useful format;  
• Relating specific ally to Article 12.4, which reads "The Committee shall develop a procedure 
to monitor the process of international harmonization and the use of international standards, G/SPS/GEN/1998  
 
- 2 - 
 
  guidelines or recommendations. For this purpose, the Committee should, in conjunction w ith 
the relevant international organizations, establish a list of international standards, guidelines 
or recommendations relating to sanitary or phytosanitary measures which the Committee 
determines to have a major trade impact…"; review the list of intern ational standards, 
guidelines and recommendations relating to sanitary or phytosanitary measures, which the 
Committee determines to have a major trade impact. Once the analysis has been 
undertaken, use the data to inform future proposals to monitor the use  of the international 
standards.  
4.  To advance these suggestions , New Zealand would like to suggest a small working group to lead 
this work. It is envisioned that this group would work remotely and could be either capital -based 
experts or Geneva based represe ntatives. New Zealand would be able to lead this working group if 
requested.  
 
__________