WT/MIN(17)/52  
12 December 2017  
(17-6846) Page: 1/3 
Ministerial Conference  
Eleventh  Session  
Buenos Aires , 10-13 December 20 17 Original: English  
 
TRADE IN FOOD AND AG RICULTURAL PRODUCTS  
 
JOINT STATEMENT OF U NDERSIGNED MINISTERS  
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENT INA 
11 DECEMBER 2017  
The following joint statement, dated 11 December 2017, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegations of Kenya, Uganda and the United States.  
 
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In order to face the challenge of producing more food in a safer and sustainable way, farmers 
must be able to access the full range of tools and t echnologies available for agricultural production. 
Yet, our farmers ' choice of safe tools is increasingly undermined by regulatory barriers that lack a 
sufficient scientific justification, and this is having substantial negative impact on the production 
of, and trade in, safe food and agricultural products. We believe in both protecting human health 
and facilitating access to food – both goals of the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary 
and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement). Having in mind the importance of transparency and 
predictability to international trade,  we call on all Members to  strengthen the implementation of 
the WTO SPS Agreement by reinforcing the work of relevant international standards organizations 
and ensuring the scientific bas is of SPS measures is sound. The development and application of 
sound SPS measures is needed to support farmers ' choice in tools that can expand agricultural 
production and facilitate access to food and agricultural products, and also to safeguard human, 
animal and plant health.  
 
In this regard, we recognize the work undertaken by the WTO SPS Committee to examine 
pesticide -related issues that have an adverse impact on international trade in food and agricultural 
products, and to achieve consensus on collabo rative actions to reduce that impact on trade, 
particularly on the agricultural exports of developing countries. We affirm the central importance of 
risk analysis to assess, manage, and communicate risks of concern associated with pesticide use in 
order to  protect public health while enabling the safe use of pesticides and facilitating trade in food 
and agricultural products. We support the voluntary actions by Members put forward by Kenya, 
Uganda and the United States (G/SPS/W/292/Rev.2) to increase the ca pacity and efficiency of 
Codex in setting international standards on pesticide maximum residue levels (MRLs); to improve 
transparency and predictability in Members' setting of national MRLs; to achieve greater 
harmonization across national and regional MRL s; and, to enable greater access to alternative 
pesticides and pesticides for minor -use crops, particularly in developing countries.  
 
We acknowledge the productive work of the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) in 
building knowledge and capaci ty for developing countries in the area of pesticide MRLs. We will 
work jointly in the SPS Committee to monitor the effectiveness of the voluntary actions and the 
STDF work in addressing trade concerns related to food and agricultural products and to propo se 
further collaborative, consensus actions as appropriate.  
 
 
  WT/MIN(17)/52  
 
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  Mr. Aloysio Nunes Ferreira  
Minister of Foreign Affairs  
Brazil  
 
 
 Hon. François -Philippe Champagne  
Minister of International Trade  
Canada  
 
Mr. Rodolfo Nin Novoa  
Minister of Foreign Affairs  
Uruguay  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mr. Alexander M ora Delgado  
Minister of Foreign Trade  
Costa Rica  
 
Mr. Bary Emmanuël Rafatrolaza  
State Secretary of Foreign Affairs  
in charge of Cooperation and Development  
Madagascar  
 Mrs. Maria Lorena Gutierrez B.  
Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism  
Colombia  
 
 
Mr. Augusto R. Arosemena  
Minister of Commerce and Industry  
Panama  
 
 
 
 
 Mr. Hugo Fco. Rivera Fernández  
Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs  
and International Cooperation  
Dominican Republic  
 
WT/MIN(17)/52  
 
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  Mr. Eduardo Ferreyros  
Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism  
Peru 
 
 Mrs. Paulina Nazal Aranda  
Vice Minister of Commerce  
Chile 
 
 
Hon. Amina C. Mohamed  
Minister of Foreign Affairs  
Kenya  
 
 Mrs. Amelia Anne Kyambadde  
Minister of Trade, Industries and Cooperatives  
Uganda  
 
 
Mr. Luis Miguel Etchevehere  
Minister of Agroindustry  
Argentina  
 Mr. Atsushi Nonaka  
Parliamentary Vice -Minister for Agriculture,  
Forestry and Fisheries  
Japan  
 
 
Mr. Victor Asturias  
Minister of Economics  
Guatemala  
 
 Mr. Juan Esteban Aguirre  
Permanent Representative of Paraguay to the 
World Trade Organization  
 
 
 
 
 
Mr. Robert E. L ighthizer  
United States Trade Representative  
United States of America  
 
  
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