G/SPS/W/323  
 
18 March  2020 
(20-2113) Page: 1/5 
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures  Original: English  
 
COMMENTS ON THE RECO MMENDATIONS IN THE D RAFT REPORT OF THE F IFTH REVIEW 
(G/SPS/W/313/REV.2)  
SUBMISSION FROM THE UNITED STATES  
The following document , received on 9 March  2020, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of the United States . 
 
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1  APPROPRIATE LEVEL OF  PROTECTION, RISK AS SESSMENT AND SCIENCE  
1.1 Recommendations:  
▪ Given the importance of ensuring that SPS measures are based on scientifi c principles, 
the Committee encourages Members to review periodically the SPS measures 
implemented in their national and/or regional systems, and their risk assessment 
techniques, as new circumstances and scientific evidence emerge and international 
standa rds, guidelines , and recommendations, are developed and updated by Codex, the 
OIE, or the IPPC.  
▪ The Committee should continue to discuss the topic of risk, including management of 
situations involving insufficient scientific information, and consider next steps for 
discussion.  
▪ The Committee invites Members to share experiences and examples of nation al efforts 
to consider scientific uncertainty and/or insufficiency of scientific evidence in risk 
analysis and the development and implementation of SPS measures.  
▪ The Committee invites ISSBs to share examples of efforts to consider scientific 
uncertainty a nd/or insufficiency of scientific evidence in risk analysis and the 
development of international standards, guidelines and recommendations.  
2  CONTROL, INSPECTION AND APPROVAL  PROCEDURES (ANNEX C ) 
2.1 Recommendations:  
▪ The Committee should continue discussions and information exchange on the topic of 
control, inspection and approval procedures. To that end, the Committee should 
establish a formal SPS Committee agenda item on Annex C under the Operation and 
Implementation  of the SPS Agreement agenda item to enable Members to share 
information on this topic.  
▪ Following the fruitful exchange of experiences and ideas at the November 2019 
SPS Committee Thematic Session on Approval Procedures, the Committee should create 
an ele ctronic working group open to the participation of all Members and Observers to 
continue to examine the topic of approval procedures. The electronic working group,  
outlined in G/SPS/W/321 , The electronic working group  could explore the:  
i. Key challenges of approval procedures that impact int ernational trade that 
Members should seek to address;  G/SPS/W/323  
 
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  ii. Principles of approval procedures that facilitate international trade while meeting 
the importing Member's appropriate level of sanitary or phytosanitary protection;  
iii. Available tools and best practices t o enhance the implementation of the obligations 
of the SPS Agreement as they apply to approval procedures; and  
iv. Possible future work of the Committee on this topic.  
2.2 Comments from the United States on its suggested  edits for the second recommendation on 
control, inspection and approval procedures in relation to the revised text " The electronic working 
group,  outlined in G/SPS/W/321 , The electronic working group  could explore the…" : 
a. Rather than reference W/321, we suggest the recommendation list the topics  that the eWG 
"could" explore. That way, the eWG can take up the elements of interest to Members.  
3  EQUIVALENCE  
3.1 Recommendations:  
▪ Members are encouraged to notify any agreement reached on the recognition of 
equivalence.  
▪ Given the importance of Article 4 o n equivalence and of the Committee's Decision on 
the Implementation of Article 4 of the SPS Agreement (Equivalence),1 the Committee 
should continue discussions and information exchange on the topic of equivalence, 
including systems approaches, through the existing agenda item and in -depth 
discussion during future thematic sessions, informal meetings, and working groups as 
appropriate.  
▪ Members SPS Committee representatives  are encouraged to coordinate with their 
country's  Codex, OIE, and IPPC representatives and experts to highlight the importance 
of understanding trade impacts during the development and discussion of international 
standards, guidelines, and recommendations ISSB discussions that bear  on the issue of 
equiva lence.  
3.2 Comments from the United States on its suggested edits for the second recommendation on 
equivalence in relation to the deleted text " Given the importance of Article 4 on equivalence and of 
the Committee's Decision on the Implementation of Articl e 4 of the SPS Agreement (Equivalence),2": 
a. On further reflection, we would prefer not to single out specific obligations as "important " 
or to reaffirm. The SPS Agreement lays out a balance of rights and obligations.  
3.3 Comments from the United States on  its suggested edits for the  third recommendation on 
equivalence in relation to the revised text "… ISSB discussions that bear  on the issue of 
equivalence …": 
a. We would like this to refer to ISSB discussions bearing on equivalence more broadly. This 
accounts for the trade significance of discussions that bear on equivalence but that are not 
about the development of standards, guidelines, or recommendations specifically focused on 
the general topic of equivalence; and this ensures the relevance of the 5th Review 
recommendation regardless of how ISSB agendas and discussions evolve.  
4  FALL ARMYWORM  
4.1 Recommendations:  
▪ Members should continue to exchange experiences on efficient, predictable and science -
based regulatory approaches that help to mitigate the effect of fall armyworm on trade 
 
1 G/SPS/19/Rev.2 . 
2 G/SPS/19/Rev.2 . G/SPS/W/323  
 
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  while safeguarding  and that also safeguard  human, animal and plant health and life , 
and taking into  account for the  specific needs of smallholdings smallholder farm families . 
▪ As appropriate, Members are encouraged to request technical assistance to support 
efforts to improve their integrated pest management strategies and, where needed, 
their regulatory approach to pre -market approval and inspection systems, with the goal 
of, inter alia, enabling greater access to products that strengthen host plant resistance.  
▪ Members are encouraged to continue discussion of the concepts identified in 
G/SPS/W/317  that aim to assist Membe rs, particularly those with capacity constraints, 
to address SPS challenges, in the SPS Committee , including and, where appropriate , in 
the electronic working group on approval procedures established pursuan t referred  to 
in paragraph [insert relevant 5th Revision paragraph with  the proposal by Canada in 
G/SPS/W/321 . eWG recommendation] above.  
4.2 Comments  from the United States on its suggested edits for the first recommendation on fall 
armyworm  in relation to the revised text "… smallholder farm families. ": 
a. The "smallholding " would be the land itself, which would not have needs. The original 
"smallholder farm families " seems more appropriate.  
4.3 Comments from the United States on  its suggested edits for the third recommendation on fall 
armyworm  in relation to the revised text "… established pursuan t referred  to in paragraph [insert 
relevant 5th Revision paragraph with  the proposal by Canada in G/SPS/W/321 . eWG 
recommendation] above .": 
a. Due to confusion about what "established pursuant to the proposal by Canada " would bring 
in, refer to the eWG in this way.  
5  NATIONAL SPS COORDIN ATION MECHANISMS  
5.1 Recommendations:  
▪ Members are encouraged to implement appropriate national coordination mechanisms 
to enable consultation and communication between relevant technical an d trade policy 
experts to enable the development of coordinated , SPS positions that are  consistent 
with the obligations of the SPS Agreement. Members are further encouraged to consider 
ways to strengthen internal coordination on SPS matters.  
▪ Members should  continue to share experiences on their national coordination 
mechanisms and discuss strategies and approaches to improve SPS coordination and 
engagement at the national level with the aim of strengthening implementation of the 
SPS Agreement, including res olving specific trade concerns.  
▪ The Committee requests the Secretariat to prepare a collection of resources that can be 
useful for Members in implementing their national coordination mechanisms, starting 
with those mentioned at the 2019 Workshop on Transpa rency and Coordination with 
particular attention to the concepts and questions outlined in G/SPS/W/297 , and 
including additional resources as suggested by Members.  
5.2 Comments from the United States on its suggested edit for the first recommendation on 
national SPS coordination mechanisms:  
a. To be clear that we want the positions to be consistent with the SPS Agreement – and that 
we are not saying there is an SPS Agreement requirement for internally coordinated 
positions.  
 
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  6  NOTIFICATION PROCEDURES  AND TRANSPARENCY  
6.1 Recommendations : 
▪ Members are encouraged to clearly indicate in their SPS Committee notifications when 
a measure has been notified to another Committee.3 Members should include this 
information under the point of the notification forma t titled "Other relevant documents 
and language(s) in which these are available".4 
6.2 Comments from the United States on its suggested edit for the recommendation on notification 
procedures and transparency:  
a. We do not believe that the footnotes should be included. These footnotes are slightly off 
point in ways that could create confusion.  
b. We feel the content of footnote 4 is inaccurate. Box 6, description of content, suggests 
identifying which parts of a dual -notified measure are SPS and which TBT.  
c. The new proposed notification for box 9 (other relevant documents) would indicate whether 
the measure was also notified to the TBT committee. Whether it has been dually notified is 
different from the question of which parts are SPS and which TBT.  
7  MRLS FOR PLANT PROTECTION  PRODUCTS  
7.1 Recommendations:  
▪ The Committee encourages Memb ers to engage in national discussions of options that 
could enable a more productive Codex MRL system; and in particular, to discuss ways 
to achieve sustainable funding for the joint FAO/WHO scientific bodies. Such national 
discussions of options with resp ect to the MRL system would take place in the context 
of national resource availability, and could involve consideration of, inter alia, options 
for increasing support to JMPR, including increasing representative expert participation 
and other forms of sup port for the scientific bodies, and options for encouraging 
programmes to support submission of data from developing countries, especially on 
minor crops. The Committee invites regular updates from Codex on its progress in the 
evaluation of new compounds a nd of new uses for existing compounds, and on its 
progress in its periodic review of existing compounds.  
▪ The Committee encourages Members to provide greater transparency and predictability 
worldwide on MRLs, by inter alia: (1) notifying all proposed change s to their MRLs, 
including changes to MRLs that are based on international standards; and (2) reviewing 
and improving their ability to take the comments of their trading partners meaningfully 
into account when considering proposed changes on MRLs.  
▪ The Comm ittee welcomes efforts by Members and the relevant observer organizations 
to provide regular updates to the Committee on their activities on MRLs, including 
updates on regional initiatives on MRLs. The Committee notes that such information 
could provide th e basis for other Members to implement similar activities at the national 
and regional levels to improve harmonization to Codex MRLs, as well as to regional 
MRLs where relevant, in order to facilitate trade.  
▪ The Committee invites Members, on a voluntary ba sis, to explore ways in which their 
domestic regulatory approaches to pesticide registration and use can impact – both 
negatively and positively – the incentives of the private sector to invest in registration 
and stewardship of lower -risk alternative pest icides in their countries. The Committee 
 
3 Please refer to section 2.7 of the Recommended Procedures for Implementing the Transparency 
Obligations of the SPS Agreement (Article 7) in document G/SPS/7/Rev.4 , which also makes reference to 
notifying a regulation containing SPS and TBT measures under both the SPS and TBT Agreements.  
4 In the Committee's Recommended Transparency Procedures ( G/SPS/7/Rev.4) , the explanatory 
sections of the notification formats in Annex A -1 and Annex B -1 indicate that this type of information should be 
included in the notification format under the point titled "Description of content" . This section would have to 
be updated if th e Committee agreed that this information should be included under the point titled "Other 
relevant documents and language(s) in which these are available" . G/SPS/W/323  
 
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  also invites Members to evaluate their own minor use needs and to collaborate in global 
data-generation activities.  
8  REGIONALIZATION  
8.1 Recommendations:  
▪ The Committee recognizes the importance of regionalization to safe trade in agricultural 
products. The Committee encourages Members to respond to requests from other 
Members concerning regionalization in a timely manner and to avoid unnecessary 
requests for information.  
▪ Members are encouraged to use actively and syst ematically the Guidelines to Further 
the Practical Implementation of Article 6 (G/SPS/48), including the section on Expedited 
Process (Section IV).  
▪ With a view to increasing transparency, Members are encouraged to share: their 
experiences in developing and  strengthening their frameworks for regionalization; and 
information on their procedures and processes related to regionalization, including on 
how another Member may request recognition of pest - or disease -free areas.  
▪ Under the Committee's agenda item for  regionalization, Members are encouraged to 
share experiences on: securing another Member's recognition of regional conditions with 
respect to specific plant pests or animal diseases; and recognizing regional conditions 
of another Member with respect to sp ecific plant pests or animal diseases.  
▪ Members appreciate the information shared by OIE and IPPC on their activities in 
support of regionalization. Members welcome additional information on case studies, 
the Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS) Pathways, and Observatory projects, and 
on other activities aimed at improving understanding and implementation of OIE and 
IPPC standards.  
▪ The Committee should further discuss issues related to Article 6, including the 
Committee Guidelines, through future thematic sessions, informal meetings or working 
groups, as appropriate.  
9  ROLE OF CODEX, IPPC AND OIE IN ADDRESSIN G SPECIFIC TRADE CON CERNS  
9.1 Recommendations:  
▪ The International Standard Setting Bodies are invited Committee encourages Members 
to provide inf ormation on consult with the relevant ISSB for advice and counsel when a 
specific trade concern arises regarding one of the ISSB's standards, guidelines andor 
recommendations in the SPS Committee meetings . 
▪ The Committee may continue to consider the role of Codex, IPPC and OIE in 
addressing with respect to specific trade concerns.  
9.2 Comments from the United States on its suggested edit in the second recommendation on the 
role of Codex, IPPC and OIE in relati on to the revised text "  in addressing with respect to …": 
a. Current phrasing presumes they have a role in "addressing " the concerns. That would 
misunderstand the permissible role of ISSBs.  
 
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