G/SPS/GEN/1342  
 
7 July 2014  
(14-3848)  Page: 1/5  
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures  Original: English  
 
 TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 
COMMUNICATION FROM CANADA 
The following communication, received on 3 July 2014, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of Canada. 
 
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 1.  Canada would like to provide an update rega rding the provision of technical assistance from 
January to December 2013.
1 Technical assistance has been provided to developing and least 
developed countries in accordance with Article 9 of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary 
and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures. The assistance was primarily aimed at facilitating the development and implementation of sanitary and phytosanitary measures based on sound science. 
The attached table reflects Canadian technical assistance to developing and least developed 
countries in 2012. While every effort has been made to ensure that information contained in the table presents all relevant technical assistance projects, it may not constitute a complete 
compilation of technical assistance delivered given the number of Canadian government 
departments and agencies and the variety of delivery programs involved. 
2.  The monetary value of the technical assistance committed amounted to approximately 
CDN $7.47 million between January and December 2013. It should be noted that, in many cases, 
the organizations providing the assistance also made additional in-kind contributions to projects. 
3.  Assistance was provided to more than 31 count ries: in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, 
Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. Assistance was directed to both individual countries, 
groups of countries, and to international organizations. 
4.  Canada's assistance addressed three of the four broad categories listed in G/SPS/GEN/206: 
information; training; and "soft" infrastructure development (but not "hard" infrastructure 
development). Assistance from Canada covered most of the "typical areas of competence" listed 
under the headings of food safety, animal health and plant protection, in the Annex of G/SPS/GEN/206. 
5.  Note that in 2013, the third contribution ($1 million) of a multi-year, multi-million dollar 
contribution was made by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) on 
behalf of Canada to the WTO Standards and Tr ade Development Facility (STDF). A total of 
$5 million over the period 2011-2014 will be provided to the STDF as a financial contribution to the 
Facility's work in the coordination of international SPS activities and SPS capacity building in 
developing and least developed countries. 
6.  In all, 17 projects are listed for the period January to December 2013. 
                                               
1 Canada has provided technical assist ance updates for 2012 (G/SPS/GEN/1318), 2011 
(G/SPS/GEN/1196), 2010 (G/SPS/GEN/1149), 2009 (G/SPS/GEN/1099), 2008 (G/SPS/GEN/1027), 2007 
(G/SPS/GEN/1008), 2005-2006 (G/SPS/GEN/765), 2000-2004 (G/SPS/GEN/728), and for years prior to 2000 (G/SPS/GEN/143/Rev.1/Add.1) G/SPS/GEN/1342 
 
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  TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROVIDED BY CANADA 
JANUARY 2013 - DECEMBER 2013 
Sector Description of 
Particular Programme Form of 
Assistance Provided to Contact 
Animal Health Bovine Spongiform 
Encephalopathy (BSE) detection training provided to five government laboratory technicians from Mexico (4-8 February 2013) Training Mexico Pam.Gale@inspection.gc.ca 
Animal Health Bovine Spongiform 
Encephalopathy (BSE) 
prevention, diagnostics, 
and confirmation training 
provided to a pathologist 
from the National Animal 
Health Service 
(SENASA), Costa Rica 
(3 June - 13 July 2013) Training Costa Rica Pam.Gale@inspection.gc.ca 
Animal Health Bovine Spongiform 
Encephalopathy (BSE) prevention, diagnostics and confirmation and quality assurance and safety information provided to Animal 
Health Research Institute 
(AHRI), Chinese Taipei (30 November – 8 December 2013) Information Chinese 
Taipei Pam.Gale@inspection.gc.ca 
Animal Health Funding to the Public 
Health Foundation of 
India (PHFI) 
collaborating with 
International Livestock 
Research Institute (ILRI) 
to build local skills and 
knowledge to achieve 
safe food production and 
livestock keeping and 
enhanced public health 
targeting bovine 
tuberculosis and the 
misuse of antibiotics on 
dairy farms 
(1 November 2013 – 
2017) Funding India k.tiessen@idrc.ca 
Plant Health One week technical visit 
to Canada for training 
and information on seed potato export certification program and diagnostic methods for detection of potato cyst nematodes (19-26 January 2013) Training and 
Information Dominican 
Republic Alain.Boucher@inspection.gc.ca G/SPS/GEN/1342 
 
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  Sector Description of 
Particular Programme Form of 
Assistance Provided to Contact 
Plant Health Biotech Risk Analysis 
Workshop 
Financial contribution 
and technical expertise 
in support of a five day 
workshop on 
biotechnology facilitated 
by the Inter-American 
Institute for Cooperation 
on Agriculture (IICA) 
held in San Jose, Costa 
Rica 
(25 February – 2 March 
2013) Training Belize, 
Costa Rica, 
El Salvador, 
Guatemala, 
Honduras, 
Nicaragua, 
Panama Rolf.Schoenert@inspection.gc.ca 
Plant Health Low Le vel Presence in 
Seed Workshop Two-day hemispheric workshop attended by government officials and representatives of the seed industry (Seed Association of the Americas (SAA), Canadian Seed Trade Association, DuPont-Pioneer, and Seed Associations of Paraguay) (12-13 June 2013) Training Brazil, Chile, 
Columbia, 
Costa Rica, 
Honduras, 
Mexico, 
Nicaragua, 
Paraguay k.finstad@agr.gc.ca 
Food Safety A project with the 
University of Nairobi to 
evaluate drivers of 
compliance with food 
safety standards through 
different institutional 
arrangements, assess 
financial and economic 
viability of compliance, 
and analyze livelihood 
impact of compliance on 
smallholder farmers 
involved in vegetable 
production and export in 
central and eastern 
Kenya 
(March 2010 – 
September 2013) Information Kenya k.tiessen@idrc.ca 
Food Safety Funding to the 
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) to generate knowledge and technologies to improve the nutritional quality and safety of foods along the value chain (February 2012 – March 2015) Funding Global k.tiessen@idrc.ca G/SPS/GEN/1342 
 
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  Sector Description of 
Particular Programme Form of 
Assistance Provided to Contact 
Food Safety Financial contribution to 
the Inter-American 
Institute for Cooperation 
on Agriculture (IICA) in 
support of the 
participation of the 
countries of Latin 
America and the 
Caribbean (LAC) in the 
meetings of the Codex 
Committee in 2013 
(March 2013) Funding Bolivia, 
Plurinational 
State of; 
Costa Rica; 
Dominican 
Republic; 
Nicaragua; 
Panama; 
Uruguay Daryl.Nearing@agr.gc.ca 
Food Safety Developed and adapted 
training materials for use 
by the Global Foodborne 
Infections Network (GFIN) of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Cameroon and India. Delivered training for two WHO-GFIN sponsored courses in India (9-17 April and 7-11 October 2013) Training Cameroon, 
India Melissa.phypers@phac-aspc.gc.ca 
Food Safety Presentation on export 
certification at a series of 
seminars to agri-food 
inspectors at border 
entry-exit points 
(12 June – 25 October 
2013) Information Mexico Rolf.Schoenert@inspection.gc.ca 
Food Safety Presentation on Canada's 
food recall system at the Food Safety Forum organized by Mexico's 
regulatory agency, 
National Service for Health, Safety and Agri-food Quality (SENASICA) (2 October 2013) Information Mexico Rolf.Schoenert@inspection.gc.ca 
Food Safety Korean Food and Drug 
Administration (KFDA) 
study tour to Canada on 
Canada's food- borne 
disease policy, 
surveillance of food-
borne disease outbreaks 
and the response 
management system of 
food poisoning within 
Canada 
(15-19 October 2013) Training Korea, 
Republic of Rita.Gratton@hc-sc.gc.ca 
Food Safety Deployed epidemiologist 
to the Philippines, as part of WHO's Global Outbreak Alert Response Network, to help mitigate potential risks 
to public health in the 
wake of Typhoon Haiyan (19 December 2013 – 17 January 2014) Technical 
Expertise Philippines Melissa.phyp ers@phac-aspc.gc.ca G/SPS/GEN/1342 
 
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  Sector Description of 
Particular Programme Form of 
Assistance Provided to Contact 
Animal 
Health, Plant 
Health and 
Food Safety Series of one day 
videoconference 
seminars in association 
with Inter-American 
Institute for Cooperation 
on Agriculture in Canada 
as follow up to a regional 
workshop on risk 
assessment and 
management in animal 
health, plant health and 
food safety to members 
of the Andean Technical 
Committee on 
Agriculture and Livestock 
Health (COTASA) and 
government officials 
from four Latin American 
countries in Lima, Peru 
in 2012 
(8, 15, 22 March 2013) Training 
and Funding Bolivia, 
Plurinational 
State of; 
Columbia; 
Ecuador; Peru Daryl.Nearing@agr.gc.ca 
Animal 
Health, Plant 
Health and 
Food Safety Technical visit to share 
information on the 
Canadian regulatory 
framework for products 
of biotechnology with 
visiting regulators of the 
West African Economic 
and Monetary Union 
(WAEMU) and promote 
science-based 
regulations for products 
of biotechnology 
(29 April 2013) Information Benin, 
Burkina Faso, 
Guinea-
Bissau, 
Côte d'Ivoire, 
Mali, Niger, 
Senegal, 
Togo Kirsten.finstad@agr.gc.ca 
 
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