WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/SPS/GEN/1205 
17 October 2012 
 (12-5646) 
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
INFORMATION ON SPS-RELATED RECENT AND FORTHCOMING ASSISTANCE AND 
OTHER ACTIVITIES FROM THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTRE (ITC) 
(JULY - SEPTEMBER 2012) 
 
 
 The following communication, received on 15 Octo ber 2012, is being circulated at the request 
of the ITC. 
 
_______________ 
  
I. PROJECTS 
A. EIF
 - SECTOR COMPETITIVENESS AND EXPORT DIVERSIFICATION IN THE GAMBIA (2012-
2015) 
1. The Quality Enhancement component of the pr oject has started in August 2012 with the 
development of the quality assurance framework fo r cashew nut and sesame.  Overall the component 
will address product food safety and qua lity issues and address technical barriers  hindering 
market access of Gambian exports of groun dnuts, cashew nuts, and sesame, by implementing 
activities which will include: 
(a) Upgrading NARI’s lab testing capacity a nd recognition at international level 
 (aflatoxin); 
(b) Developing standards for groundnuts, cashew nuts and sesame; 
(c) Providing training and tools for enhanced quality segregation of groundnuts by 
 quality control inspectors; 
(d) Enhancing food safety of groundnuts through implementation of HACCP1 and pre-
 requisites such as GAP2 and GMP3; 
(e) Developing a Quality Assurance Fr amework for cashew nuts and sesame; 
(f) Enhancing farmer capacity to grow groundnuts, cashew nuts and sesame of better 
 quality and higher productivity throug h a Farmer Field School Approach. 
B. NETHERLANDS TRUST FUND (NTF  II) - SENEGAL  
2. The project, funded by the Netherlands, h as the objective to create a competitive and 
sustainable value chain for mango export to Europe from the Niayes region in Senegal. 
                                                      
1 Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. 
2 Good Agricultural Practice. 
3 Good Manufacturing Practice. G/SPS/GEN/1205 
Page 2  
 
  3. Within the framework of the project, the ITC Quality component assists mango exporters to 
access the EU market and improve their competitiveness (January 2012 - March 2013).  
4. Key interventions delivered by ITC with the support of ASEPEX and other trade support 
institutions: 
(a) The diagnostic analysis of three enterpri ses and two groups of farmers was conducted 
and assistance to accompany them to implement the schemes is being delivered 
(June 2012 - March 2013).  Two enterpri ses were successfully certified to 
GlobalGAP by an internationally-recognised certification body in August 2012. 
(b) A programme of short training and communication courses was held along the supply 
chain in July-August 2012:  
 four training sessions for the producers to prevent and treat fruit fly 
infestation and implement good agricult ural practices (101 trained people); 
 five "animations pédagogiques" to prevent and treat fruit fly infestation 
(131 trained persons); 
 two sessions for the exporters on good cold chain practice (78 trained 
persons). 
(c) To monitor the sanitary compliance of mango with the EU regulation on maximum 
residue limits (MRL), a series of analysis  on pesticide residues have been conducted 
by an internationally accredited lab.  All the samples were found to be in conformity 
with EU MRL requirements. 
5. A national mango day was organized in Daka r on 4 October 2012 to take stock of the 
campaign, NTF II results, planning of next steps and to provide recommendations vis-à-vis the strategy against fruit fly infestation. 
C. STDF/PG/172:
  "EXPANDING NIGERIA 'S EXPORT OF SESAME SEEDS AND SHEANUT /BUTTER 
THROUGH IMPROVED SPS  CAPACITY BUILDING FOR PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SECTOR " 
6. The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) is the implementing agency of the STDF 
172 project, with ITC as supervisory agency.  The pr oject duration was approved to be extended from 
October 2012 till March 2013 at the last STDF WG meeting, to address the delay accumulated with 
regard to the issue of completing the premises and sh elters in the selected stat es to house the machines 
and their delivery and use.  In the last months , the project advanced on the completion of the 
documentation such as characterization of the two va lues chains; development of a simple predictive 
model to reduce aflatoxin;  updating of manuals of safety and quality and training materials.  
Significant effort has been put by NEPC to ge t the states mobilizing funds and progressing on the 
construction of the sites based on the model funded by NEPC, and also on monitoring the delivery of 
seven sets of machinery.  A requ est for additional funding is being submitted to the STDF WG to 
support the completion of a few activities, initially not properly budgeted in the project or omitted, 
such as continuous lab testing, adequate support by the international consultant, and contribution to 
the building of the shelters. 
7. The third ITC monitoring mission is planned to take place on the occasion of the mission of 
the International Consultant (if funded) once four sites are completed for the implementation of the 
HACCP system and training of trainers on HACCP in November 2012.  G/SPS/GEN/1205 
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  D.  CUSTOMS UNION (BELARUS , KAZAKHSTAN AND RUSSIA ) 
8. A guide on EU market access conditions for past a and flour exporters of the Customs Union 
and a study on the quality and SPS infrastructures supporting exports of flour and pasta to the 
European Union from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ru ssia are under development within the framework 
of the project "CIS regional trade development".  
9. ITC is planning to host one roundtable in Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia in October –
November 2012 to present the findings and finalise the guide and the study.  
E. PERU  - EXPORT DEVELOPMENT IN PERU'S NORTHERN CORRIDOR4 
10. The export quality management component of the project has the objective to build the 
capacity of trade related institutions in the Costa ar ea of Peru to complement their programmes aimed 
at enhancing the competitiveness of small ente rprises through compliance with food hygiene and 
safety requirements in international markets and enhance and increase their exports.  The project 
(April 2012 – March 2013) is building the capacity of  10 selected Trainers-cum-Counsellors (TcC) to 
assist 10 small and medium-sized enterprises from Ch iclayo and Piura to understand and implement 
food safety systems based on HACCP through the ITC methodology of TcCs and related Training 
Pack.  A second mission of the national consultant  took place in August 2012, when the following 
was delivered: 
 Follow-up visits to enterprises to monitor th e implementation of the road map for HACCP 
and on how to prepare documentation for HACCP, August 2012; 
 A two-day workshop on "Understanding Hazard An alysis and Critical Control Points 
Determination", Piura, 20-21 August 2012; 
 A one-day workshop on "Principles and Me thods of Training" for TcCs, Piura, 
22 August 2012. 
The next mission of the national consultant is pl anned in November 2012 to continue the practical 
training on implementing HACCP of the TcC and enterprises.  
II. OTHER ITC PROJECTS OF INTEREST 
A. N
ON-TARIFF MEASURES PROJECT  
Non-Tariff Measures (NTM) project 
 
11. In September 2012, ITC launched a new NTM survey  in Indonesia: this will be one of the 
largest NTM surveys carried out so far, with 1, 300 companies planned to be interviewed in the 
country.  To date, 23 ITC NTM surveys have been launched worldwide.  Two new official requests 
have been received in October from the governme nts of Thailand and Papua New Guinea for the 
implementation of ITC NTM surveys. In the meantime, the draft NTM report for Madagascar and 
Malawi are nearly finalized.  It has been agreed  with the local authorities in Madagascar that a 
national stakeholders meeting be held on 31 October to discuss results  of the survey.  The Malawi 
stakeholder workshop is scheduled to be held on 11 October in Lilongwe to present and discuss ITC 
NTM survey results in the country.  
                                                      
4 The project is funded by the Economic Cooperation and Development Division at the Swiss State 
Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). G/SPS/GEN/1205 
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  12. The Peru NTM report has been published and is now freely available online at 
http://www.intracen.org/peru-company-pers pectives-itc-series-on-non-tariff-measures/ .  Another 
successful NTM National workshop was held in July  in Rwanda, where the national NTM report was 
validated by the local authorities.  Comments from the workshop and the meetings in Kigali need to 
be incorporated before the final report is pub lished and made available on the ITC website.  
13. The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and Industr y (CCC) of Sri Lanka developed an STDF 
project building on some critical findings of the survey conducted by ITC on NTMs faced by Sri Lankan exporters.  The survey revealed that  the majority of reported NTM cases adversely 
affecting agricultural companies in Sri Lanka are technical regulations ( SPS and TBT) and related 
conformity assessments.  This project funding has been approved by the STDF Working Group and 
the kick-off of the project is pending the finali zation of the implementation framework between 
STDF/ITC and CCC. 
14. For more information about NTM projects, please contact Ms Poonam Mohun, ITC, NTM 
Market Analyst, Market Anal ysis and Research;  Tel: +41 22 730 0277, Fax: +41 22 730 0577, 
E-mail:  mohun@intracen.org . 
B. TRADE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (T4SD) 
15. ITC's Standards Map allows users to compare pr ivate standards with regards to, for example, 
social, environmental and economic criteria, ge ographic and product-related scopes, compliance 
policies and requirements for implementation.  Comp liance to these standards is not legally required 
by governments or regulations, but it could lead  to more sustainable social and environmental 
practices and improved competitiveness for exporters.  
16. As of June 2012, the Standards Map covers  75 private standards developed by non-
governmental organizations, companies, multi-stakeh older coalitions and other private entities.  The 
new standards loaded include Worldwide Respons ible Accreditation Production (WRAP), Verified 
Carbon Standard and Union for Ethical BioTrade (U EBT).  The team is working on an additional ten 
standards that will be loaded on the website by  the end of October 2012, including Global Reporting 
Initiative (GRI), Global Social Compliance Progra mme (GSCP) and the European Ecolabel, among 
others.  The T4SD team also published several pape rs in the past months, among which a paper series 
on the impacts of private standards on global value ch ains (part 1), on the producers level (part 2) and 
on the interplay of public and private standards (part 3).  The three papers are accessible at: 
http://www.standardsmap.org . 
17. In collaboration with the Sustainable Agri culture Initiative (SAI) Platform, the Dutch 
Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) and IMD’s Corpor ate Sustainability Management Platform (CSM), 
the team is also developing a business guide for su stainable sourcing.  This guide will lay out the key 
issues companies need to take into considera tion when planning and implementing a sustainable 
sourcing strategy, with particular focus on developi ng a sustainable supply chain.  Illustrating the 
main challenges in developing sustainable supply ch ains, this guide will develop a set of concrete 
actions and strategic responses to support businesses in dealing with sustainability issues along the 
supply chain.  The final publication is expected in December 2012. 
18. The team aims to have approximately 110 standa rds fully loaded on the website by the end of 
2012.  
19. Should you be interested in a live demonstration of  the website or in a webinar, please contact 
Joseph Wozniak, Program Mana ger (wozniak@intracen.org). 
  G/SPS/GEN/1205 
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  III. OTHER ITC INTERVENTIONS OF INTEREST 
A. WTO  ADVANCED COURSE ON SPS  AGREEMENT (8-26  OCTOBER )  
20. ITC hosted two sessions of the training cour se on 10 October, one on the STDF presented by 
an STDF representative and one on technical assistance in the SPS area provided by ITC (ITC Representative). 
B. WEDF
 2012:  LINKING GROWTH MARKETS : NEW DYNAMICS IN GLOBAL TRADE  
21. The World Export Development Forum (WEDF), the ITC flagship event, will this year focus 
on the opportunity of linking some of these growth  markets through inter-regional trade between the 
ASEAN region, Latin America and Africa, and the pote ntial for this process to contribute to trade-led 
inclusive sustainable development.  The event is be ing hosted by the Government of the Republic of 
Indonesia and will be held from 15-17 October 2012 in Jakarta. 
22. Information on topics and the programme will be available on http://www.intracen.org/trade-
support/wedf . 
 
For more information: 
Ludovica Ghizzoni, ITC Adviser on Export Quality Management  
Tel: +41 22 730 06 38 - Fax: +41 22 730  05 76  - E-mail:  ghizzoni@intracen.org 
 Khemraj Ramful, ITC Senior Adviser  on Export Quality Management  
Tel: +41 22 730 04 87 - Fax: +41 22 730  05 76  - E-mail:  ramful@intracen.org 
Web address:  http://www.intracen.org/exporters/quality-management/  
E-mail:  quality@intracen.org 
 
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