G/TBT/N/CHE/202  
3 September 2015  
(15-4455)  Page: 1/2  
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: French  
 
  NOTIFICATION 
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6. 
 
1. Notifying Member: SWITZERLAND 
If applicable, name of local governme nt involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):  
2. Agency responsible: Office fédéral de la sécurité alimentaire et des affaires vétérinaires , 
OSAV (Federal Office for Food Se curity and Veterinary Affairs) 
Name and address (including telephon e and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above:  
Secrétariat d'Etat à l'économie , SECO (State Secretariat for Economic Affairs) 
Holzikofenweg 36 3003 Berne 
Fax: +41 (0)58 464 09 58 
Email: tbt@seco.admin.ch  
Website: http://www.seco.admin.ch/   
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X], 2. 10.1 [ ], 5.6.2 [ ],  5.7.1 [ ], other:  
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff 
heading. ICS numbers may be provided  in addition where applicable): Food and 
basic commodities 
5. Title, number of pages and lang uage(s) of the notified document:  
 Ordonnance sur les denrées alimentaires et les objets usuels (ODAlOUs)  (Ordinance 
on food and basic commodities) (50 pages) 
 Ordonnance concernant l'information sur les denrées alimentaires (OIDAl)  
(Ordinance on food information) (100 pages) 
 Ordonnance sur le plan de contrôle national (OPCN) (Ordinance on the national 
control plan) (20 pages) 
Language(s) of the notified document: German, French and Italian 
6. Description of content:  
 ODAlOUs: This ordinance would provide a framework for all provisions on food and 
basic commodities. 
 OIDAl: This ordinance has been harmonized with the legislation of our main 
economic partner (the European Union). A provision specific to Switzerland is to be 
adopted, which establishes that the name of the country of production must be 
displayed on all food products. In the EU, the country of production must only be declared if the absence of this information would mislead consumers. 
 OPCN: The national control plan would estab lish the general principles of the federal 
policy on food safety, and the basis for controlling, according to certain risk criteria, different categories of enterprises and products, thus promoting greater coherence in national strategies. G/TBT/N/CHE/202 
- 2 - 
  7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where 
applicable:  
 Protection of consumer health 
 Harmonization with the legislation of the main economic partner (the European 
Union) 
8. Relevant documents: The draft technical regulation can be downloaded from the 
complete draft revision of the legislation on food and basic commodities, which is available 
at: 
http://www.blv.admin.ch/dokumentation /01013/05845/05846/inde x.html?lang=fr 
9. Proposed date of adoption: Mid-2016 
Proposed date of entry into force: Mid-2016  
10. Final date for comments: 30 November 2015 
11. Texts available from: National enquiry point [X] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers and email and website addresse s, if available, of other body:  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2015/TBT/CHE/15_3448_00_f.pdf 
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2015/TBT/CHE/15_3448_01_f.pdf 
https://members.wto.org/crnattachme nts/2015/TBT/CHE/15_3448_02_f.pdf