G/SPS/GEN/1395
10 March 2015
(15-1351)  Page: 1/4
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures  Original: Spanish
 
  ACTIONS AIMED AT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WTO AGREEMENT 
ON SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES 
INFORMATION SUBMITTED BY TH E INTER-AMERICAN INSTITUTE 
FOR COOPERATION ON AGRICULTURE (IICA) 
The following communication, received on 9 March 2015, is being circulated at the request 
of the IICA. 
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  1.  The observer organizations of the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures 
(SPS Committee) are invited to submit reports on the activities they have carried out to promote 
the understanding and implementation of the SPS Agreement. The IICA would like to present some 
of the actions and activities that it considers relevant to the work of this Committee. 
1  EFFORTS TO MAKE GREATER USE OF THE MULTILATERAL FORMS 
1.1  World Trade Organization 
2.  The IICA-WTO Reference Centre
1 has handled approximately 1,400 technical 
enquiries of various kinds relating to trade, some of them on the subject of sanitary and 
phytosanitary (SPS) measures. 
3.  During the period 2013-2014, the number of SPS-related enquiries received by the Centre 
doubled, increasing from 4.2% of the total in 2013 to 9.1% in 2014. They covered a wide range 
of subjects, from the institutional framework to the overall SPS context, regional negotiations, 
and the standards imposed by markets for a specific product. 
Table 1. Number of SPS-re lated enquiries per year 
2013-2014 
Year SPS Total 
2013 24 572 
2014 53 585 
 
4.  As part of the Reference Centre's outreach work, a national workshop was organized 
in Costa Rica under the leadership of the representatives of the country's academic institutions and with the support of the Academic Support and Re ference Centres Unit of the WTO. The workshop 
took place during the second week of Se ptember 2014, and included an SPS module. 
                                               
1 The WTO Reference Centres promot e the circulation of WTO publicat ions and news, provide access to 
its databases and supply information on the e-training se ssions available. They act as enquiry points, providing 
information to their users. These centres began as part of a techni cal cooperation programme aimed at 
mitigating the problems of access to information and of  training in WTO-related areas faced by some of the 
developing countries. There are currently some 120 WTO Reference Centres throughout the world, one of them 
located in the IICA. Some of the reference centres are national, and others regional : the IICA Reference Centre 
serves the Institute's 34 member countries. G/SPS/GEN/1395 
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  5.  The IICA supported the IDB/WTO Regional SPS Workshop held in Montevideo, Uruguay, 
from 17 to 20 November 2014. It was attended by 46 participants from 19 countries of Latin America. The IICA was invited to give a presentation on the AHFS programme, which was 
well received by the participants and organizers  and elicited their interest. The agenda of the 
workshop placed particular focus on facilitation of agricultural trade. 
6.  As part of the support it provides its member countries in the Caribbean region through 
the EU-CARIFORUM project to improve thei r understanding and implementation of 
the SPS Agreement, at the last meeting of the WTO SPS Committee, the IICA co-funded the 
participation of nine professionals from the regi on in the workshop on risk assessment organized 
by the Committee secretariat. 
7.  In addition to other activities under this project, a subregional workshop was held in 
Trinidad and Tobago on the development of pr ogrammes for the surveillance of food-borne 
diseases, a critical area for the management of food safety problems in the region. The workshop targeted public sector professionals in the areas of animal health, public health and microbiology, 
and benefitted from the cooperation of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), 
the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), and the University of the West Indies (UWI). 
8.  A seminar was also held in Trinidad and Tobago for interested private-sector representatives, 
to raise awareness of anti-microbial resistance. It was attended by approximately 40 participants from both the public and private sectors. 
9.  Turning to the projects implemented with th e assistance of the IICA and funded by the 
Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF), progress has been made in the following areas: 
− Virtual school for food safety inspectors: th e week of 26 February saw the launch of the 
first virtual course on food inspection, atte nded by 340 inspectors from Central America 
and the Dominican Republic. Eight different  virtual classrooms were set up and 
coordinated by each one of the universities participating in the project. 
− Strengthening regional capacity to meet pesticide export requirements based on 
international standards: training courses were organized during 2014 for government 
officials in charge of organizing field tria ls and implementing laboratory protocols. 
Field trials were also organized in Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and Peru. 
− FEEDLATINA (Latin American and Caribbean Fe ed Industries Association) Feed & Food 
Security Programme for the harmonization of regulations and safety of animal feed 
in Latin American and the Caribbean: two m eetings of the Project Steering Group were 
held in 2014, as well as the first meeting of the Joint Technical Group in which the 
priority topics in the area of animal feed capacity building were identified. 
1.2  Codex Alimentarius 
10.  As part of the Programme to Promote Participation in the Codex Alimentarius in the Americas 
(IICA-Codex Programme), the IICA will provide support, during the first 4 months 
of 2015, for participation of approximately 17 delegates in the Committee on General Principles, the Committee on Contaminants in Foods, the Committee on Pesticide Residues, and the Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Foods. 
11.  By the end of 2014, the implementation of  the IICA-Codex Programme, which began 
in October 2009, had involved: 
− participation in 35 meetings of the Codex; 
− support for the participation of 190 delegates; 
− coverage of 12 committees or working groups;  
− 30 Latin American and Caribbean beneficiary countries; and G/SPS/GEN/1395 
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  − support for the organization of 41 coordination video conferences to find common 
positions and establish technical dialogue between members of the Codex Coordinating Committee for Latin America an d the Caribbean (CCLAC). 
12.  Thanks to this IICA-Codex Programme, support has been provided in five areas of 
fundamental importance to IICA member countries: (i) Effective participation in the 
Codex Alimentarius; (ii) capacity building; (iii) institutional strengthening; (iv) promotion of science as a basis for adopting standards; and (v) development of effective communication as a 
mechanism for reaching consensus and common positions in the interest of the region. 
13.  As part of the IICA-Codex project's support for the capacity-building and effective 
communication component, the IICA supports the holding of Codex colloquiums, in which 15 to 20 countries of CCLAC region meet face to face to share technical analyses of the subject areas that 
are of particular interest in 3 Codex committees. 
14.  In February 2015, the seventh Codex colloquium was organized in Colombia to examine the 
issues covered by the Committee on General Principals, the Committee on Contaminants in Foods, 
and the Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs.  This exercise should help the participating 
countries (15 in total) to achieve better cohesion among them when participating in those Codex Committees. 
15.  At the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015, a twinning activity was conducted between 
Belize and Costa Rica. This is another one of the mechanisms used by the IICA to promote capacity building on the basis of the knowledge and resources available among the countries of the 
CCLAC region themselves. 
16.  For Belize, the objective was essentially to strengthen the National Codex Committee and 
some of the Codex subcommittees considered to be of strategic importance to the country. Efforts were also made to secure the participation of the private sector and the government 
decision makers in order to obtain their support and permanent involvement. The activity began 
with a visit to Costa Rica by three officials from Belize to learn how the Codex functioned in Costa Rica. This was followed by an outreach and awareness-raising event in Belize with the 
participation of a delegate from the Codex focal point in Costa Rica. 
17.  The IICA's activities in relation to the Codex Alimentarius have received financial 
support from the governments of Canada and the United States, and technical support from Brazil and Costa Rica. 
1.3  International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) 
18.  Through its strategic partnership with the IPPC, the IICA is currently involved in updating the 
Handbook of Good Practices for Participation in Meetings of the IPPC. 
19.  Regional workshops on capacity buildin g and revision of the IPPC's draft 
International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPMs) for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean: these regional workshops took plac e from 22 to 25 September in Jamaica and from 
28 to 31 October in Costa Rica with view to promot ing the active participation of the National Plant 
Protection Organizations (NPPOs) in the preparation of the ISPMs and to foster capacity building in 
areas of interest relating to plant protection. The Latin American workshop was attended by 25 delegates from 17 countries and 3 observer or ganizations, while the Caribbean workshop was 
attended by 17 delegates from 13 countries. 
2  SUPPORT FOR STRENGTHENING OF THE INSTITUTIONAL, TECHNICAL AND 
REGULATORY FRAMEWORK 
20.  As part of the IICA's training programmes for its member countries on new legislation that 
significantly impacts trade, since 2014 it has been  working on building up the capacity to meet 
the United States' new food safety requirements. 
21.  With the support of the United States Department  of Agriculture, the IICA and its partners in 
the different countries have been organizing nati onal workshops to enhance understanding of the G/SPS/GEN/1395 
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  Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and its proposed regulations, to ensure that the export 
sector is properly equipped to respond to the new requirements. 
22.  These workshops were held in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama and 
were attended by more than 500 participants repr esenting producers, exporters and public sector 
organizations. As part of this cooperation, a number of visits were organized to companies in 
Guatemala and Honduras to determine their readin ess to implement the requirements introduced 
by the FSMA. 
23.  In 2015 an event was organized in the Dominican Republic involving workshops in 
Santiago and Santo Domingo where once again co mpanies were assessed. Similar activities are 
scheduled to take place in Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and the Caribbean. 
24.  Tool for the assessment of national capacities to respond to animal health and plant protection 
emergencies: the IICA has developed a new tool to provide countries with a method that will help 
them to analyse and determine their readiness to deal with emergencies and to plan their 
response. 
25.  Performance, Vision and Strategy (PVS) fo r NPPOs: the IICA, keen to contribute 
to strengthening NPPOs, continues to support countries through the use of the new PVS tool available in Spanish and English. The PVS process has been introduced in five countries of the 
hemisphere (Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Paraguay). 
Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) 
Agricultural Health and Food and Safety 
http://www.iica.int 
 
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