G/SPS/GEN/1261  
 
8 July 2013  
(13-3598)  Page: 1/2  
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures  Original: English  
 
ACTIONS REGARDING SPS-RELATED PRIVATE STANDARDS 
COMMUNICATION FROM CHINA 
The following statement made by China at the 26th June 2013 informal meeting of the SPS 
Committee on SPS-related private standards, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of 
China. 
 
_______________ 
  1.  Under Action 4 of the SPS Committee’s Decisi on on "Actions regarding SPS-related Private 
Standards" (G/SPS/55), Members are encouraged to communicate with entities involved in 
SPS-related private standards in their territories to sensitize them to the issues raised in the SPS Committee and underline the importance of international standards established by the Codex, 
OIE and IPPC.  
2.  We understand that, as elaborated in paragraphs 11 and 12 of this Decision, the objective of 
such communications is, among others, to draw the attention of those entities involved in the 
development, application and certification of SPS-related private standards to the concerns raised 
in the SPS Committee, and to encourage harmonization, mutual recognition of standards by private standard holders, cost reduction in the areas of compliance and certification, and further transparency and consultation mechanisms. 
3.  To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, we consider it very useful and relevant for 
Members to make reference to the Code of Good Practice of the WTO TBT Agreement and the Decision of the WTO TBT Committee on the "Six Pr inciples" for the preparation of international 
standards, in Members' communications with these non-governmental entities. 
4.  First, the Code of Good Practice (Annex 3 of the TBT Agreement) for the preparation, adoption 
and application of standards is open to acceptance  by any standardizing body within the territory 
of a WTO Member, whether a governmental body or non-governmental body, or whether a 
governmental regional standardizing body or non- governmental regional standardizing body. This 
Code of Good Practice elaborates the importan t principles that should be followed by these 
governmental or non-governmental bodies, includ ing transparency and stakeholder participation, 
non-discrimination, least-trade restrictiveness, use of international standards as benchmarks, 
avoidance of duplication or overlap with the work  of other standardizing bodies in the national 
territory or with the work of relevant international or regional standardizing bodies, and 
performance-based standards instead of design-bas e d  s t a n d a r d s .  W e  b e l i e v e  t h a t  t h i s  C o d e  o f  
Good Practice is particularly useful to private standards developed at the national and regional levels. 
5.  With regard to the Decision of the TBT Committee on principles for the preparation of 
international standards, guides and recommendations, the so-called "Six Principles" Decision, we would like to recall that this decision was adopted by the TBT Committee in November 2000. This decision clearly stipulates that the principles of transparency, openness, impartiality and 
consensus, effectiveness and relevance, coherence, and development dimension should be 
observed, when international standards, guides and recommendations are elaborated. In relation 
to SPS-related private standards, we believe that this decision is particularly useful for those 
private standards which claim to be international standards or to have international influence. G/SPS/GEN/1261 
 
- 2 - 
 
  6.  We note that some Members have already ta ken concrete measures to communicate with the 
non-governmental entities in their territories which are involved in the development, application and certification of private standards, including the running of some pilot-projects on private schemes. We appreciate all these efforts, and we believe that these efforts will benefit the healthy 
development of private standards as well as trade.  China would like to take this opportunity to 
encourage more Members to follow suit. We would be very happy to hear and learn from these 
Members’ experiences at a future meeting of the SPS Committee. 
__________