G/SPS/GEN/1587  
 
30 October 2017 
(17-5872) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures  Original: Spanish  
 
 
COMMISSION REGULATIO N (EU) NO. 488/2014 OF 12 MAY 2014 AMEND ING 
REGULATION (EC) N O. 1881/2006 AS REGA RDS MAXIMUM  
LEVELS OF CADMIUM IN  FOOD STUFFS  
COMMUNICATION FROM P ERU 
The following communication, dated 27 October 2017, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation Peru. 
 
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1.  Peru would like to express before WTO Members its trade concern with respect to Commission 
Regulation (EU) No. 488/2014  of 12 May 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No. 1881/2006 as 
regards maximum levels of cadmium in foodstuffs. Specifically , this European regulation has 
established maximum levels for cadmium in chocolate and other cocoa products which, upon entry 
into force on 1 Ja nuary 2019, would have a negative impact on trade in cocoa beans.  
2.  Peru is one of the leading centres of genetic diversity for cocoa1: six of the ten cocoa clusters 
genetically identified to date grow in the Peruvian Amazon2, making Peru the most cocoa 
biodiverse country in the world. Cocoa has become one of the highest grade Peruvian inputs, 
recognized worldwide: value added is created in top quality chocolate factories, both domestic and 
foreign, and in fact, both  Peruvian cocoa and Peruvian chocolate make rs were awarded prizes  at 
the 2017 International Chocolate Awards . The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) considers 
Peru to be a producer and exporter of fine and flavour cocoa , classifying 75% of Peruvian 
production in that category.3 Indeed, Peru ranks second among world exporters of fine and flavour 
cocoa after Ecuador.4 
3.  Cocoa acti vities in Peru involve 16 cocoa -producing regions5, 90,000 cocoa families, 
136,000  hectares of harvested area and a production of 108,000 tonnes. This has meant that 90% 
of production in all its forms (bean s, paste, powder, butter, chocolate) is exporte d. In 2016, 
the value of cocoa exports exceeded US$294 million , which represents approximately 5% of Peru's 
total agricultural exports for that year. Compared  to 2015, a nnual growth in the value of 
cocoa  exports was 10.3%. The four leading cocoa export markets i n 2016 were Holland, 
the United  States, Belgium and Canada.6 
                                                
1 Dr Evert Thomas (2017) concerning the potential origin of domestication of cocoa in the south of Peru, 
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/355/6328/925/tab -e-letters . 
2 "Cocoa Genetic Clusters " by Juan C. Motamayor, Philippe Lachenaud, Jay Wallace da Silva e Mota, Rey 
Loor, David N. Kuhn, J. Steven Brown, Raymond J. Schnell - Geographic and Genetic Population Differentiation 
of the Amazonian Chocolate Tree (Theobroma Cocoa L ), October  2008.  
3 ICCO Ad hoc Panel on Fine or Flavor Cocoa, Fourth meeting, Holiday Inn Hotel Wembley, London 
Friday, 18 September 2015. See: https://www.icco.org/about -cocoa/fin e-or-flavour -cocoa.html . 
4 "Cacao Fino de Aroma de origen peruano: estrella de nuestra biodiversidad nativa ", presentation at 
the Foro Productos de la Biodiversidad Nativa, organized by MINCETUR at EXPOALIMENTARIA 2017. Author: 
Alianza Cacao Perú.  
5 Amazonas, Ayacucho, Cajamarca, Cusco, Huánuco, Junín, La Libertad, Lambayeque, Loreto, Madre de 
Dios, Pasco, Piura, Puno, San Martin, Tumbes and Ucayali.  
6 Data obtained from the Exporters Association (ADEX) – ADEX Data Trade, 11 October 2017.  G/SPS/GEN/1587  
 
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 4.  Although the limits laid down by the European Union (EU) appl y to chocolate and cocoa 
produ cts, they directly affect exports of cocoa beans, since the importers use these limits to cut 
the international price on the New York and London commodity  exchanges, even though they do 
not apply to cocoa beans, nor indeed are they in force.  
5.  Peru considers  the European Regulation to be contr ary to the WTO Agreement on 
the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement).  Under Article 2 of 
the SPS Agreement, the European Union's measure should be based on scientific principles and 
should n ot constitute a disguised restriction on international trade. Since for the moment there is 
no international regulation in this respect , the opinion of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on 
Food Additives (JECFA) has provided  the European Union with a basi s for considering different 
cadmium levels . It should be pointed out, however, that the justification for the European 
Regulation rests on earlier  JECFA reports, and not the 2013 report7 which does not consider the 
issue of cadmium and cocoa to present a r isk to public health.  
6.  The European Union was able to establish its level of protection using as  scientific evidence a 
risk assessment by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) ; but it has not been demonstrated 
that the limits correspond to a scientific opinion as p rovided for in Article 3 of the  SPS Agreement, 
or that they are based on the "ALARA P rinciple" (a s low as reasonably achievable), which was 
questioned by the European Union itself in 2005 with the Opinion of the Scientific Committee on a 
request from  EFSA related to a Harmonized Approach for Risk Assessment of Substances which are 
both Genotoxic and Carcinogenic.8 In fact, this Opinion suggest s that the risk analysis for 
substances of this kind should be conducted using the margin of expos ure (MOE) approach.  
7.  We need to ensure that the European Regulation was developed using EFSA's MOE approach as 
provided for in Article 5 of the SPS Agreement, and not according to  the ALARA Principle, since for 
the risk assessment in question the effects on  trade in other countries had to be considered. Using 
the ALARA Principle, the levels established by the European Union c ould be qualified as more 
trade -restrictive than required.  
8.  Given the impact at that this regulation would have, the Codex Committee on Contaminants in 
Foods (CCCF) is still in the process of developing a Codex Standard for establishing maximum 
levels of cadmium in chocolate and other cocoa products. The deadline for completing this 
standard is 2019.  
9.  For the above reasons, and in view of t he lack of scientific evidence that cadmium in chocolate 
is of concern from a public health perspective (77th JECFA) , pending the completion by  the Codex 
Alimentarius of its work on maximum levels for chocolate, Peru asks the European Union to 
exclude choc olate from the application of Regulation No. 488/2014 in the light of the market 
distortions it is already causing.  
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7 The full report of the 77th meeting of the JECFA is available at:  
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/98388/1/9789241209830_eng.pdf . 
8 See http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/j.efsa.2005.282/epdf .