G/SPS/GEN/1479  
 
8 March 2016  
(16-1351)  Page: 1/3  
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures  Original: English  
 
UPDATE ON OECD ACTIVITIES OF  INTEREST TO THE SPS COMMITTEE 
COMMUNICATION FROM THE OECD 
The following communication, received on 7 March 2016, is being circulated at the request of the 
OECD. 
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1  ALTERNATIVE FUTURES FOR GLOBAL FOOD AND AGRICULTURE 
1.1.  A new OECD report was published last month on the challenges and opportunities for the 
agricultural sector in the coming decades: Alternative Futures for Global Food and 
Agriculture  (http://oe.cd/alternative-futures ). This report sets out three contrasting scenarios for 
world towards 2050, developed with officials from OECD and non-OECD agricultural ministries, 
enriched by a large number of experts in relevant fi elds and quantified with a set of four different 
economic models. The report discusses a large number of subjects, from food security to 
greenhouse gas emissions and the economic sustaina bility of farming, and develops a range of 
broad strategies for policy, industry and society. 
1.2.  Of greatest interest to this Committee, the report finds that both food safety and trans-
boundary pests and livestock diseases are likely to remain high on the agenda, but strongly 
depend on a number of scenario-specific drivers. Two of these factors are most relevant: first, a broad move of societies towards more sustaina ble consumption patterns will generally reduce 
pressures by lowering the use of potentially harmful substances in agricultural production, and by 
shortening supply chains and food miles. Second, greater international co-operation between both 
public authorities and private agents can help to mitigate risks, although the faster growth arising 
from such broad cooperation may increase threat s from intensified food and livestock trade, 
raising pressures for both environmental and health issues. 
1.3.  Among other strategies, an increased coherence of food market regulations is identified as 
key for shaping developments and outcomes in food and agriculture over the coming decades. 
While differences in food-related regulations have long been identified as hampering international trade in agriculture and food products, such regulations generally help to achieve important policy objectives by responding to a range of societal concerns, often related to market failures. 
Enhanced coherence of such regulations is theref ore required to achieve two related goals: to 
allow for the trade required to ensure sufficient competition in food markets and hence improve the allocation of global resources in supplying food products to a rising and more affluent 
population, and to improve the efficiency with  which regulations achieve their stated and 
legitimate objectives. 
2  MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE FOR AGRICULTURE AT MINISTERIAL LEVEL 
2.1.  Ministers of Agriculture from the OECD and partner countries around the world will meet at 
OECD headquarters in Paris on 7-8 April 2016, to discuss Better Policies to Achieve a 
Productive, Sustainable and Re silient Global Food System . Ministers will explore the new 
policies needed to achieve this widely shared in terest, and will exchange on how to ensure that 
existing policies begin to shift in these directions more quickly. G/SPS/GEN/1479 
 
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  2.2.  After the last OECD meeting of Agricultur al Ministers in 2010, Ministers will assess whether 
the policies governments are pursuing are well targeted to address emerging issues and public priorities, in light of growing and changing dema nd for agricultural products, climate change and 
increased competition for limited natural resources. 
2.3.  The Ministerial meeting will be co-chaired by  Mr Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, United 
States, and Mr Stéphane Le Foll, Minister of Agriculture, Agrifood and Forestry, France. In addition to OECD member countries, key emerging and developing countries, representatives of civil 
society and international organisations active in food and agriculture issues will attend, bringing 
together an enriching diversity of views. 
2.4.  More information on the upcoming OECD Agriculture Ministerial Meeting can be found on the 
dedicated website http://www.oecd.org/agr iculture/ministerial  (available from 14 March 2016). 
3  INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY CO-OPERATION  
3.1.  Trade-related International Regulatory Co-operation  has been identified as key for 
reducing the costs of international trade while enhancing the ability of domestic regulations to 
achieve their objectives with respect to market inefficiencies in the most efficient way possible. 
Work on IRC is continuing at the OECD by further developing a Theoretical Framework, evaluating a number of specific cases of successful IRC initiatives, and developing a Diagnostic Tool to 
provide a step-by-step approach to help countries to identify and select the most favourable 
international regulatory co-operation mechanisms. I have updated this Committee at its meeting in October 2015 and will have the pleasure to do so again in greater detail in July, so I will limit myself to a few additional comments today. 
3.2.  The Theoretical Framework, which will be  discussed by the relevant OECD Working Parties 
this spring, comprises a conceptual basis for the analysis of three main sources of trade costs: specification costs (related to the compliance wi th product and production requirements of the 
import market), conformity assessment costs (related to the demonstration of such compliance), 
and information costs (related to searching and identifying the relevant requirements in terms of both production and conformity assessment procedures). 
3.3.  The IRC research includes an in-depth analysis of several actual experiences with IRC, i.e. 
instances where governments have engaged in mechanisms to reduce or manage regulatory diversity and where reduction of trade costs is one of the incentives for co-operation. The cases of regulatory co-operation studied cover a range of products, collaboration contexts and geographical 
regions. They illustrate various IRC mechanisms, ranging from harmonisation to recognition of 
equivalence, which co-operation can achieve. Specific cases studied that relate to agricultural products are the World Wine Trade Group (e.g. Memorandum of Understanding on Certification 
Requirements), the Wine Regulatory Forum within AP EC (e.g. alignment of export certificates), the 
International Organisation of Vine and Wine (O IV), and the North American Free Trade Agreement 
Technical Working Group on pesticides. On the organic products, the study focuses on three 
bilateral agreements of equivalency involving the European Union-United States, the 
European Union-Japan and Korea-United States, respectively. 
3.4.  Information about these cases is gathered from governments participating in these IRC cases 
by way of a questionnaire. The questionnaire expl ores how the process of cooperation evolved in 
each case and what considerations and factors influenced the specific IRC mechanisms agreed. 
Besides providing useful illustrations of possible forms and results of inter-country co-operation addressing regulatory diversity and its trade effects, the information collected will be used to test 
certain features of the theoretical framework under  construction and feed into the elaboration of 
the diagnostic tool. A report on the IRC cases will become available later this year. 
4  WORKSHOP ON THE ECONOMICS OF THE ANTIMICROBIAL USE IN THE LIVESTOCK 
SECTOR AND DEVELOPMENT OF ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE 
4.1.  A Workshop on the Economics of Antimicrobial Use in the Livestock Sector and 
Development of Anti microbial Resistance  was held on 12 October 2015 in OECD 
(http://oe.cd/amr2015 ). The Workshop was jointly organised by the Directorate for Trade and 
Agriculture and the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. The Workshop brought G/SPS/GEN/1479 
 
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  together government officials, policy makers , researchers and experts from International 
Organisations to discuss the growing concerns over the increase of antimicrobial resistance in human health and potential linkages to the agricultural sector. More specifically, the main objectives of the Workshop were to share information and to take stock of the global usage, and 
trends, of antimicrobials in the livestock sector, and to identify alternative policy approaches to 
mitigate the negative externalities associated with the rapid growth in antimicrobial resistance. 
4.2.  The overall economic costs to the healthcare  system from antimicrobial resistance in North 
America and Europe are estimated at $23bn annually. There is widespread use of antibiotics in 
intensive livestock production systems globally, with the most rapid increase expected to occur in emerging economies. Discussions focused on iden tifying the right policy mix between regulations 
and economic incentives to guide the prudent us e of antibiotics in the livestock sector. The 
Workshop noted the serious deficiencies in obtaining comparable information and data on the 
global use of antibiotics in agriculture, as well as the lack of information on risk management and costs of switching to alternative production syst ems that minimise the use of antibiotics. The 
experts stressed that a holistic package of measures with a "one-health approach" is required to 
ensure that sustainable solutions are found on a country specific basis. Further work on estimating the economic benefits and costs of switching produc tion systems to low antibiotic use systems will 
be undertaken in the coming years, as well as additional work on clarifying the policy options for 
the different production systems. 
Contact: Martin von Lampe (E-mail: martin.vonlampe@oecd.org ) 
 
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