G/SPS/GEN/1341  
 
30 June 2014  
(14-3750)  Page: 1/2  
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures  Original: English  
 
 WTO SPS COMMITTEE MEETING 
9–10 JULY 2014, GENEVA SWITZERLAND 
INFORMATION ON SPS ACTIVITIES OF THE AFRICAN UNION 
The following communication, received on 27 June 2014, is being circulated at the request of the 
African Union. 
 
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  1  AU-DREA
1 SPS RELATED-ACTIVITIES 
1.1.  The African Union organized the Joint Co nference of Ministers of Agriculture, Rural 
Development, Fisheries and Aquaculture at the Af rican Union Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, 
Ethiopia from 28 April - 2 May 2014 as one of a series of events commemorating 2014 as the Year 
of Agriculture and Food Security in Africa, and a critical part of a process building up to the 
planned June 2014 AU Summit of the Heads of State and Governments on the theme of the Year of Agriculture and Food Security: "Transforming Africa's Agriculture for Shared Prosperity and 
Improved Livelihoods through Harnessing Opportunities for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable 
Development". 
1.2.  The meeting was convened both to review progress on the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture 
Development Programme (CAADP) implementation and to develop goals, actions and targets 
aimed at achieving the overarching goal of accele rated growth and transformation, attaining food 
and nutrition security and poverty reduction on the continent over the next 10 years. The overall objectives of the meeting was to review progress on investment efforts impacting on production 
and productivity, access to markets (noting the role SPS plays on market access) and 
competitiveness, innovation, resilience, and investment finance, and their implications on the achievement of the overarching goal of attaining food and nutrition security and poverty reduction 
on the continent. Senior Officials and Experts deliberated in five work streams including one on 
"Harnessing markets and trade opportunities for transformation and shared prosperity". The 
meeting set a target to increase access to functioning markets and trade in a competitive agricultural sector; capturing the growing market opportunities and increase in the share of intra-
African trade to at least 50% of the continent's total agro-food trade by 2025, within a continental 
free trade area (CFTA) supported by an effective external tariff scheme that strengthens regional 
preference in agri-food by 2019. The meeting recogn ized that while tariff barriers and quantitative 
restrictions have been eliminated in most RECS, non-tariff barriers still persist and seriously 
hamper inter and intra-regional trade of fish and fisheries products. The meeting proposed to 
enhance the coordination mechanism to promote African common positions on agriculture-related 
international trade negotiations and partnership agreements. 
1.3.  The African Union Commission (AUC) co nvened the African Agribusiness Forum on 22
nd June 
2014, at the margins of the 23rd Ordinary Session of the Africa Union Heads of State and 
Government Summit, of 20-27 June 2014, in Mala bo, Equatorial Guinea. The delegates of the 
forum discussed the opportunities and challenges of the African Agribusiness sector noting the 
need for compliance to global SPS measures and international standards. 
                                               
1 African Union - Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture. G/SPS/GEN/1341 
 
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  1.4.  The African Union and the European Union und er the Joint Africa-EU Strategy in partnership 
with the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) jointly organized a training workshop on Geographic Indications in Botswana and Mozambique. The workshop focused on "Development and use of specific instruments to origin-based marketing tools in African-ACP 
countries". The workshop was attended by government officials from the agriculture domain and 
from the intellectual property domain, young leaders and innovators from the farming and the agricultural production sector; entrepreneurs and young leaders engaged in marketing of 
agricultural product on national, regional and international markets. The objectives were to: 
a) build specific expertise and capacity among key officials and stakeholders on protecting origin 
and geographical indications for local farmers and producers of agricultural products; b) create a 
network of practitioners within the country and ac ross Africa with the knowledge on the subject of 
GIs; and c) identify and fast-forward protection of the geographical names of key national 
agricultural products that can benefit from protection on the local, national, regional and international markets. 
2  AU-IAPSC SPS RELATED ACTIVITIES 
2.1.  AU-IAPSC (African Union Interafrican Phytosanitary Council) is ensuring provision of technical 
information sourcing (including plant species, plan t pests and diseases etc.) and inputting into the 
R e f e r e n c e  d a t a  o f  A R I S  2 .  T h i s  w i l l  p r o v i d e  q u ick reference to NPPOs in their routine work of 
technical clearance of imports/expo rts of plant and plant parts in in ternational trade. A draft Brief 
has been completed and is in the process of be ing translated and published for circulation to 
NPPOs. 
2.2.  IAPSC together with the Regional Economic Communities/Member States (REC/MS) identified 
phytosanitary topics for regional standardization to address phytosanitary challenges on the continent. A call for topics was made and responses were received from SADC and The Gambia. 
IAPSC will send the selected and prioritized topic(s) to AU-IBAR under the PANSPSO programme 
for further advancement into development of a draft regional phytosanitary standard. 
2.3.  A document entitled Use of Irradiation as a phytosanitary treatment: "The Case of South 
Africa; what can the rest of Africa learn from it"  is under preparation for publication and 
dissemination to member States. It is in line with the implementation of ISPM 18:2003: Guidelines 
for the use of irradiation as a phytosanitary measure  and ISPM 28:2007: Phytosanitary Procedure 
for regulated pests  and Adopted Annex 7 on Phytosanitary Tr eatment by target regulated articles 
(fruits and vegetables), targeting fruit flies of the family Tephritidae (generic). The publication is 
aimed at obtaining buy-in of irradiation as a phytosanitary treatment by decision makers in view of problems associated with chemical residues on fruits and vegetables and the ban on the use of 
methyl bromide in fumigation to kill pests. 
 
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