G/SPS/GEN/1338  
 
27 June 2014  
(14-3706)  Page: 1/7  
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures  Original: English  
 
 COMMUNICATION FROM ISO 
(REPORT OF ACTIVITIES) 
The following communication, received on 23 June 2014, is being circulated at the request of the 
International Organization for Standardization (ISO). 
 
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 The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has prepared this information paper as part of ongoing updates and communication between the SPS Committee and the ISO Central 
Secretariat. It provides a summary of current work undertaken by ISO that may be of interest to 
members of the WTO SPS Committee and is intended to support and enhance dialogue and coordination between the two organizations. 
Any general information regarding the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) can be 
found on http://www.iso.org/ . ISO counts more than 20,000 International Standards, 
230 technical committees and 488 subcommittees managing some 2,686 working groups. 
1  ISO'S INTERNATIONAL STATUS 
1.1.  ISO has a specific status with many UN agencies, including the WHO and FAO. It is also an 
observer at the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE), the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (WTO TBT), the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and 
also at the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) and the World Organization for Animal Health 
(OIE). ISO entered into a liaison relationship with the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC). 
1.2.  ISO organized a regional workshop on the Role of International Food Standards in 
international trade on 22 and 23 April 2014 in Bangkok, Thailand with the support of the Thai Industrial Standards Institute (TISI) together with the cooperation of the Codex Alimentarius 
Commission, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the Global Food Safety Initiative 
(GFSI) with support from the Swedish international development cooperation agency (Sida). Among the 56 participants in this regional workshop, 40 individuals (representatives of national standards institutes, government and industry) came from 14 countries in East and South East 
Asia. 
1.3.  This workshop offered the opportunity to have an overview of the region's food supply 
chains, expose the linkages and differences among the various international players, and review 
the challenges, opportunities and solutions that a coherent implementation of standards and 
practices can provide. This event focused on rais ing awareness and building capacity of a cadre of 
individuals in the region. These individuals are expected to carry the lessons learned from the 
workshop to their respective national groups, to inform their National Standard Bodies and their 
stakeholders about work done at ISO/TC 34 and potential engagement in technical work (e.g. involving producers, workers, inspectors, testing laboratories, transporters, food chain professionals, export promotion agencies, stor age and freight forwarders). The workshop was 
followed by the ISO/TC 34, Food products  plenary meeting. G/SPS/GEN/1338 
 
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  2  ISO AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 
2.1.  ISO/DEVCO, the policy development committ ee that deals specifically with the needs of 
developing countries in ISO, assists developing countries to focus both on acquiring world-class technological competence and on achieving a good  understanding of the technical requirements 
underlying global trade. DEVCO's membership comprises 153 national standards institutes from 
industrialized as well as developing countries. (Find out more about DEVCO on http://www.iso.org/iso/home/about/i so-and-developing-countries.htm ). 
2.2.  In 2013, ISO/DEVCO carried out three projects  in relation to ISO 22000 technical assistance, 
and three events are planned in 2014 (see Annex 1) . With the objective of improving awareness of 
key stakeholders in developing countries of the role of such standards in economic growth, world trade and their contribution to sustainable develo pment, two national seminars on ISO 22000 were 
organized in Ecuador and Bolivia. Three other events were organized with the objective of building 
capacity: a regional workshop on Food Standards and Trade in Havana, Cuba, a regional workshop on the Role of International Food Standards in Trade in Bangkok, Thailand, both of them inviting 
other international organizations such as the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the World 
Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) to participate; and a national training of trainers seminar organized in Walvis Bay followed by a national seminar in 
Windhoek, Namibia. In addition, sponsorships are provided to individuals from developing 
countries to attend the meetings of ISO/TC 34/SC 17, Management systems for food safety ; four 
sponsorships were provided for the meeting held on 4 8 November 2013 in Sydney, Australia, and 
five sponsorships are expected to be provided for the next meeting planned in Copenhagen, 
Denmark on 15-19 September 2014. 
3  ISO TECHNICAL WORK UPDATES 3.1.  The priority areas of mutual interest on which ISO would like to maintain and nurture 
dialogue with the SPS committee are the work of ISO/TC 34 on food products and the generic 
work of the ISO Committee on conformity assessment (ISO/CASCO). 
4  ISO'S CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE 
4.1.  The 29
th plenary of the ISO Committee on conformity assessment (ISO/CASCO1) was hosted 
by the Standardization Administration of China (SAC) and the Certification and Accreditation Administration of China (CNCA) in Beijing, China, on 9 and 10 October 2013. It was attended by 106 delegates from 37 member bodies, 2 internal li aisons, 12 liaison bodies, including the IEC and 
8 observers. 
4.2.  ISO/CASCO held an open day and round table discussions on conformity assessment in 
conjunction with the plenary. These sessions attracted more than 95 participants. The open day 
focused on the current work of ISO/CASCO wo rking groups (WGs) and recently published 
standards. The round table discussions focused on future strategic issues facing ISO/CASCO and conformity assessment in general. 
4.3.  Having the ISO/CASCO plenary in China facili tated participation from the Asia Pacific region 
in the plenary and the workshop. The ISO committee for developing countries (DEVCO) sponsored the participation of a number of delegates from ISO Member Bodies in the region. 
4.4.  A regional workshop on the Impact of Economic Globalization, Regulation and Consumer 
Safety on Conformity Assessment  was also held in conjunction with the plenary and was attended 
by over 110 delegates. 
4.1  Topical issues currently being addressed in ISO/CASCO 
 IAF-ILAC-ISO Joint Strategic group continues to monitor the implementation of their 
strategic action plan to ensure good conformity assessment in relation to management systems standards and to assist in protecting the ISO brand and image; 
                                               
1 http://www.iso.org/iso/home/about/conformity-assessment.htm . G/SPS/GEN/1338 
 
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   ISO/CASCO is in the process of completing an interactive online tool to promote a 
harmonized approach to conformity assessment based on the ISO/CASCO toolbox by national regulators. It is intended for use by the national member bodies together with national regulators. Two regional workshops are planned for 2014 in Oman and Botswana; 
 CASCO Strategic Alliance and Regulatory grou p (STAR) continues to attract and encourage 
intergovernmental agencies and industry sector s’ interaction directly with ISO/CASCO. The 
membership continues to grow and this year the telecommunications industry (Quest 
Forum) joined the group. ISO/CASCO continues to promote the benefits of the toolbox to 
the STAR members and other participants. The format of the STAR is under review to even further facilitate participation and discussions; 
 ISO/CASCO is investigating various possibilities with regard to developing guidance and 
other deliverables on conformity assessment schemes. Guidance is already being finalized 
with regard to product certification schemes. It is intended to expand this to personnel and 
sector schemes in the coming 12 to 18 months; 
 ISO/CASCO continues exploring ways of ensuring adequate representation of stakeholders, 
industry, consumers and developing countries in ISO/CASCO activities, especially via the 
use of the WebEx for all of its meetings; 
 Together with COPOLCO, ISO/CASCO developed an information package for ISO member 
bodies and consumer organizations on the complaints' handling process for Management System Standards (MSSs) at national level. It facilitates their involvement in the resolution of complaints as they are in a position to alert local bodies where necessary; 
 ISO/CASCO completed its sixth year of managing the ISO Survey of Certifications . The 
2012 survey results have been published on the ISO website and like for the 2011 Survey, 
are available free of charge on the ISO website 
(http://www.iso.org/iso/home/sta ndards/certifi cation/iso-
survey.htm?certificate=ISO%209001&countrycode=AF ). The results show an overall 
growth in the number of certificates globally. 
4.2  ISO/CASCO membership and next plenary meeting 
4.5.  As of January 2014 ISO/CASCO has 122 members, including 77 Participating members and 
45 Observing members. 
4.6.  The next ISO/CASCO plenary, workshop and associated meetings will be held the week of 
22 September 2014 in Geneva, Switzerland. 
4.7.  More information about the scope and structure as well as a quick link to the work 
programme of ISO/CASCO  
(http://www.iso.org/iso/home/stand ards_development/lis t_of_iso_technical_committees/iso_tech
nical_committee.htm?commid=54998 ) is available on the ISO website. 
5  ISO/TC 34 COOPERATION WITH CODEX, OIE AND OTHERS 
5.1.  There is a long history of collaboration  between the Codex Committees and ISO/TC 34, Food 
products . ISO/TC 34 supports the establishment of an ongoing and sustainable framework for 
collaboration between Codex and ISO, in order to  enhance the mutual coordination of work and 
the elimination of duplication and contradictions. This also includes interest to support any joint or 
collaborative communication on each others' work. 
5.2.  ISO's observer status to the CAC provides  an opportunity for the coordination of issues 
related to a variety of ISO standards that are ad opted and used by Codex in its work. ISO methods 
have been endorsed in the document " Recommended methods of analysis and sampling " 
(CODEX STAN 234-1999 ) which is updated each year during the CCMAS meeting. 
5.3.  Codex and ISO activities are complement ary. Codex, as a governmental organization, 
prepares documents to assist governments in their statutory and regulatory work to protect their 
citizens from health hazards caused by food consumption. ISO, as a non-governmental organization, prepares standards in particular on test methods to assist stakeholders along the whole food chain to fulfil both the statutory and regulatory requirements, as well as the G/SPS/GEN/1338 
 
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  requirements of consumers of these products. ISO/TC 34 also works on how to involve more 
developing countries in the works. 
5.4.  ISO/TC 34 held its last plenary meeting in April 2014 in Bangkok, Thailand following a 
regional workshop on the role of international food standards in international trade. The Codex 
Alimentarius representative and the OIE representative gave presentations at both the workshop 
and plenary meeting. 
5.5.  ISO/TC 34 will continue to offer its full support and cooperation to the Commission with a 
view to avoiding duplication of work and will ad opt, for its own documents, the conclusions of the 
Commission on all matters concerning food hygiene requirements. 
5.6.  Annex 2 lists the projects that might be of interest to the SPS committee. It is to be noted 
that project ISO/TS 34700 Animal welfare management — General requirements and guidance for 
organizations in the food supply chain , is developed with the participation of OIE and other 
international organizations and is based on OIE codes. 
5.7.  A new handbook was published in May 2014 combining ISO/TS 22003, which contains the 
requirements for certification bodies that certify food safety management system complying with 
the requirements given in ISO 22000, with ISO/IEC 17021:2011, the standard that sets the generic requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems. More 
information can be found at: 
http://www.iso.org/iso/home/news_index/ news_archive/news.htm?refid=Ref1852 . 
6  CONCLUSION 
6.1.  It is recognized that the SPS Committee's members, as governments, have the authority to 
regulate at the national level and that ISO, as a producer of voluntary International Standards, 
does not. In the framework of good regulatory pr actice, as promoted at international and regional 
levels, International Standards and Guides may be considered useful by regulators as effective and 
efficient tools to achieve important regulatory mandates, manage risk and address market 
confidence. 
6.2.  ISO considers that by using its International Standards, regulatory authorities will achieve 
their aims in public health and safety at less cost to manufacturers and consumers. Using 
International Standards also assists countries to meet their WTO TBT and SPS Agreement obligations. 
6.3.  For any further information on technical deve lopments within ISO that have been reported in 
this paper, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs. Marie-Noëlle Bourquin at ISO Central Secretariat 
(bourquin@iso.org ). G/SPS/GEN/1338 
 
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  ANNEX 1 
OVERVIEW OF ISO 22000 TECHNICAL ASSISTAN CE PROJECTS CARRIED OUT IN 2013 
AND THOSE PLANNED FOR 2014 
Objective 1: Improve awareness of key stakehol ders in developing countries of the role 
of standardization in economic growth, world trade and sustainable development 
Title Venue/ 
Host Dates Total 
participants Sponsored 
participants Beneficiary 
countries 
National seminar 
on ISO 22000 – 
Food safety 
management systems Quito, 
Ecuador 26-28 June 2013 49 0 Ecuador 
National seminar 
on ISO 22000 – 
Food safety 
management 
systems La Paz, 
Bolivia, 
Plurinational 
State of 21-23 May 2014 50 0 Bolivia, 
Plurinational 
State of 
 
Objective 2: Build capacity of ISO members an d stakeholders involved in developing the 
standardization infrastructure and participat ing in international standardization work 
Title Venue/ 
Host Dates Total 
participants Sponsored 
participants Beneficiary 
countries 
Regional 
workshop on 
Food Standards 
and Trade Havana, 
Cuba 8-10 May 2013 69 46 Antigua and 
Barbuda; 
Argentina; 
Barbados; Brazil; Chile; 
Colombia; 
Costa Rica; Cuba; Dominica; 
Dominican 
Republic; Ecuador; 
El Salvador; 
Guatemala; Guyana; 
Haiti; 
Honduras; Jamaica; Nicaragua; 
Panama; 
Paraguay; Peru; 
St. Lucia; 
Suriname; Trinidad and 
Tobago; 
Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of; 
and Uruguay G/SPS/GEN/1338 
 
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  Title Venue/ 
Host Dates Total 
participants Sponsored 
participants Beneficiary 
countries 
National 
Training of 
Trainers 
seminar and 
follow-up 
seminars on 
ISO 22000 – 
Food safety 
management 
systems  Walvis Bay 
and 
Windhoek, 
Namibia 19-23 August 
(Training of 
trainers and 
seminar) 
and 24-25 
September 2013 
(Seminar) 15 in Training 
of trainers 
105 in 2 
follow-up 
seminars 0 Namibia 
Sponsorships to 
plenary meeting 
of ISO/TC 34/ SC 17, 
Management 
systems for food safety  Sydney, 
Australia 4-8 November 
2013 42 4 Colombia, 
Malaysia, 
Uruguay and Zimbabwe 
Regional 
workshop on 
the Role of 
International 
Food Standards 
in Trade Bangkok, 
Thailand 22-23 April 2014 40 18 Brunei 
Darussalam, 
Cambodia, 
Fiji, 
Indonesia, 
Korea Dem. 
P. Rep. of, 
Lao People’s 
Democratic 
Rep., 
Malaysia, 
Mongolia, 
Myanmar, 
Papua New 
Guinea, 
Philippines, 
Singapore, 
Thailand and 
Viet Nam 
Sponsorships to 
plenary meeting 
of ISO/TC 34/ SC 17, Management 
systems for 
food safety  Copenhagen, 
Denmark 15-19 
September 2014 45 5 To be 
determined 
 
  
 G/SPS/GEN/1338 
 
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  ANNEX 2 
SELECTED CURRENT ISO WORK ITEMS AND PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST TO SPS COMMITTEE 
HAVING CHANGED STATUS DURING THE PAST TWELVE MONTHS (AS OF MAY 2014) 
Project number Title Status 
ISO/TS 22003:2013 Food safety management systems — 
Requirements for bodies providing audit and 
certification of food safety management systems 2
nd edition published in 
December 2013 
ISO 22004:2014  Food safety management systems — Guidance 
on the application of ISO 22000 To be published in 
September 2014 
ISO 22000 Food safety management systems — 
Requirements for any organization in the food 
chain Under systematic 
review. Revision will 
start in Sept. 2014 
ISO/TS 22002-4:2013 Prerequisite programmes on food safety — 
Part 4: Food packaging manufacturing Publication in 
December 2013 
ISO/TS 22002-5 Prerequisite programmes on food safety — 
Part 5: Transport and storage Under development 
ISO/TS 22002-6 Prerequisite programmes on food safety — 
Part 6: Feed production Under development 
ISO/NP 19381 Cocoa — Requirements for sustainability of 
cocoa Under development 
with CEN 
ISO/NP 19382 Cocoa — Requirements for traceability of cocoa Under development 
with CEN 
ISO/NP 19383 Cocoa — Requirements for bodies assessing 
conformity of sustainability and traceability of 
cocoa Under development 
with CEN 
ISO/WD 19657 Definition of criteria for a food ingredient to be 
considered as 'natural' — Guidelines on 
technical definitions and criteria for natural food 
ingredients Under development 
ISO/WD TS 34700 Animal welfare management — General 
requirements and guidance for organizations in 
the food supply chain Under development 
(with OIE participation 
and based on OIE 
codes) 
ISO/AWI 19565 Minimum requirements for the certification of 
products from sustainable marine fishery Under development 
(with FAO participation 
to be confirmed) 
ISO/TS 22003:2013 Food safety management systems — 
Requirements for bodies providing audit and 
certification of food safety management systems 2
nd edition published in 
December 2013 
 
 
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