WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/SPS/GEN/1139 
13 March 2012 
 (12-1387) 
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES  
 
Communication from the European Union 
  
 The following communication, received on 9 March 2012, is being circulated at the request of 
the Delegation of the European Union. 
 
_______________  
 
Overview 
 
(i) The European Union leads the way in providing support to developing countries with an 
emphasis on both development assistance and aid for trade (" http://ec.europa.eu/trade/wider-
agenda/development/aid-for-trade/ "). 
 
(ii) The European Union is the leading, global advocate - and the world's biggest source - of aid 
for trade which is specifically targeted at he lping developing countries develop their ability and 
capacity to trade.  This covers a broad range of areas including the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) 
field. 
 
(iii) Technical assistance is provided in the SPS fi eld to facilitate developing country exporters, 
especially small operators, to gain access to the EU market.  In addition, EU technical assistance is 
geared towards improving governance and towards  meeting international standards, both of which 
help developing countries to take better advantage of the trade opportunities offered on world markets 
– both within the European Union and elsewhere. 
 
(iv) The total value of SPS-related technical assistance provided by the EU, for the period from 
January-December 2011, amounted to approximately 74 million Euro . 
 
1. The European Union would like to update Me mbers regarding the provision of technical 
assistance by the European Commissi on between January and December 20111.   
2. Technical assistance from the European Union h as been provided to developing countries in 
accordance with Article 9 of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) 
Measures .   
3. Every effort has been made to ensure that th e information contained in the attached table 
presents all the relevant technical assistance projec ts undertaken.  It should however be noted that 
individual EU member States also contribute substa ntially to development aid, be it bilaterally, 
                                                      
 1 The attached table identifies technical assistan ce committed to developing countries in 2011. The 
technical assistance provided in previous year s has already been comm unicated to Members 
(G/SPS/GEN/1074). G/SPS/GEN/1139 
Page 2  
 
  regionally or at a multilateral level - through the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) 
and through the International St andard Setting Bodies.  This assistance is over and above that 
contained in this document.  
4. EU assistance is primarily aimed at fac ilitating the implementation of sanitary and 
phytosanitary measures in developing countries by building governance frameworks, transferring 
technical know-how, putting in place infrastructure and giving practical assistance in the field.   
5. This communication is based on the document G/SPS/GEN/206 dated 18 October 2000 
captioned "Technical Assistance typology", which addressed the following four broad categories: 
(a) Information: Improving the general understanding of the SPS Agreement, 
(b) Training: Specific understanding of the SPS Agreement, 
(c) "Soft" infrastructure development which deal s mostly with training activities.  This 
type of technical assistance includes the formation of technical and scientific personnel, including food chemists and microbiologists, veterinarians, 
epidemiologists, plant pathologists, etc.   
(d) And "hard" infrastructure development.  For example, laboratories, testing 
equipment, veterinary services, processing and storage facilities, computer databases, 
disease information/monitoring systems, ar e some of the identified areas where 
technical assistance is required.  This type of technical assistance also covers other aspects of infrastructure related to the SPS Agreement.  For example, the establishment of disease-free regions which, in addition to the experts' know-how, requires substantial investments in infr astructure, such as the establishment of 
"buffer-zones", surveillance systems, etc 
6. EU assistance covered most of the "typical ar eas of competence" listed  under the headings of 
animal health, plant protection and food safety as listed in the Annex of the aforementioned GEN document. 
7. Projects can be broadly divided into two main  fields: applying SPS standards and developing 
SPS standards. 
8. In applying SPS standards, 84  projects can be seen as having been carried out in the period 
January to December 2011: 25 in the European Ne ighbourhood Countries, 21 in the Mediterranean 
Neighbourhood countries, 11 in Asia, 9 in ACP countri es, and 5 in Latin America.  The remaining 13 
actions were allocated to both individual countries and groups of countries or regional organizations 
(see Annex 1).  In cases where projects are multi-annual projects, projects are only reported once and 
generally in the year in which the project is in itiated, unless subsequent funded project extensions 
occur. 
9. In developing SPS standards, the European  Commission - under the specific Aid for Trade 
budget line - contributes to the three SPS-related Inte rnational Standard Setting Bodies (ISSBs) of the 
IPPC, OIE, and Codex.  In total, over the peri od 2011-2014 a total amount of 4 million Euro will be 
granted via multiannual contribution agreements to f acilitate the participation of developing countries 
in meetings of the ISSBs, for the establishment of the IPPC helpdesk (IRSS) and to help Codex 
Alimentarius perform a pilot study on aflatoxins. 
10. The European Union invites developing countries calling for SPS-related Technical 
Assistance to approach either the EU delegations based  in their country directly or the Directorates of  G/SPS/GEN/1139 
 Page 3 
 
 
  the European Commission involved in technical assi stance – the Directorate General for Development 
and Co-operation - located in Brussels .  
  G/SPS/GEN/1139 
Page 4 Technical assistance provided to Members,  Observers and other countries:  Year 2011 
Member:  The European Union 
Sector Description of programme: Form of Assistance: Provided to: 
Animal Health A FRICAN REFERENCE LABORATORY (WITH SATELLITE STATIONS ) FOR 
THE MANAGEMENT OF POLLINATOR B EE DISEASES AND PESTS FOR FOOD 
SECURITY :  To establish a central reference laboratory (CRL) at ICIPE  
(International centre for insect physiology ) located in Kenya, to 
generate new knowledge as reco mmended by OIE regarding bee 
diseases and pests and their cont rol measures for the Farmers' 
Federations (FF) and beekeepers.  ICIPE is providing the infrastructure 
and technical support services to the national laboratories (four satellite stations, one based in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Senegal that will be provided by the NARS). Hard and soft infrastructure ICIPE and AU-IBAR
2 
(African Union Inter African Bureau 
for Animal Resources) 
Animal Health Support the implementation of public policy in the dairy sector as 
defined in CONPES 3675 [" C ONSEJO NACIONAL DE POLITICA 
ECONOMICA Y SOCIAL] in order to improve the competitiveness of the sector, with initiatives focused on primary production (small producers of raw milk) and vertical and horizontal productive chain integration. Budget support for the dairy 
sector in Colombia Colombia  
Animal Health OIE Regional seminars dedicat ed to National Focal Points for sanitary 
information systems, for animal production food safety, for aquatic 
animal health and for veterinary products and to train new OIE 
Delegates of Europe. Training Eastern European countries of OIE 
incl. Central Asia 
Animal Health Contribution to Internatio nal Organisations on SPS related Technical 
Assistance for Developing Countries (OIE) - Payment of travel and subsistence costs of delegates from Developing Countries attending meetings of the Office International des Epizooties (OIE). Budget support  Over 50 developing countries 
Animal Health BTSF3 Laboratory training: to train laboratory technicians from 
developing countries in state of the art diagnostic techniques for rabies and for African swine fever. Soft infrastructure Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon (rabies) 
Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia (African swine 
fever) 
                                                      
 2 IBAR= African Union Inter African  Bureau for Animal Resources 
3 BTSF= Better Training for safer Food  
   G/SPS/GEN/1139
 Page 5Technical assistance provided to Members,  Observers and other countries:  Year 2011 
Member:  The European Union 
Sector Description of programme: Form of Assistance: Provided to: 
Animal Health BTSF sustained training on A frican Swine fever : to train participants 
from all over the country on the prevention, diagnostics and crisis 
management measures to be taken for African Swine fever. Training  One week in Belarus and  
One week in Ukraine 
Animal Health Diagnosis of African Swine Fever Information (Study Visit) Belarus 
Animal Health Workshops: 
1. on field diagnostics of ASF and Bluetongue (two days) 
2. on Animal Health : Emergencies and Crises (two days) 
3. on Bluetongue control measures (two days) and on Bovine 
Spongiform Encephalopathy control measures 
4. on Animal Health for the Mediterranean Neighbourhood 
Countries (two days) Training   
Many ENP countries  
Egypt Ukraine   Mediterranean Neighbourhood 
Countries 
Animal Health Adequate measures taken to protect the European Union from rabies in 
particular vaccination buffer z one, prevention of reinfection 
neighbouring member States. Hard infrastructure  Kaliningrad 
Animal Health Assist the campaign against foot and mouth disease towards trust fund  Hard infrastructure Third countries neighb ouring the EU 
MS 
    
Plant Protection Contribution to Internatio nal Organisations on SPS related Technical 
Assistance for Developing Countries 
Facilitating developing country a ttendance at IPPC meetings Facilitating developing 
country attendance in IPPC meetings Least developed and developing 
countries 
Plant Protection Contribution to Internatio nal Organisations on SPS related Technical 
Assistance for Developing Countries 
IPPC Implementation Review and Support System (IRSS) Funding support for the IPPC 
Implementation Review and Support System Least developed and developing 
countries 
Plant Protection BTSF regional workshop on plant hea lth Training ASEAN countries, hosted by Thailand 
Plant Protection Laboratory analysis of food products Soft infrastructure (expert 
mission) Azerbaijan  
  G/SPS/GEN/1139 
Page 6 Technical assistance provided to Members,  Observers and other countries:  Year 2011 
Member:  The European Union 
Sector Description of programme: Form of Assistance: Provided to: 
Plant Protection Study Visit on Integrated Pest Ma nagement (four days) Information/Trainings Jordan 
Plant Protection 1.  Expertise mission : to put in place the  information system in 
view to follow the approvals of plant establishments (5 days) 
2. Expert mission on pesticides homologation used for agricultural 
purpose (five days) 
3. Study Visit on the safety of plant products (five days) 
4. Expertise Mission on the legislation on plant products Information  Morocco 
    
Food Safety Organisation of se minars to provide training to  laboratory technicians, 
on residues and contaminants in foodstuff of animal and plant origin 
from developing countries (DC), at DC laboratory, DC regional reference laboratory and/or EU reference laboratory Soft infrastructure (Hands on 
training)  Ukraine, Malaysia, India, Egypt, 
Georgia 
Food Safety Contribution to Internationa l Organisations on SPS related Technical 
Assistance for Developing Countries - Payment of travel and allowances costs of delegates from Developing Countries attending Codex meetings 
FAO/WHO Project and Fund for Enhanced Participation in Codex Budget support 234 particip ants from 65 developing 
countries 
Food Safety BTSF regional works hops: Organisation of trainings  
1. on food safety crisis management 
2. one for national residues monitoring plans and one on Codex 
Alimentarius, jointly between FAO and EU 
3. on animal welfare during transport and at slaughter 
4. on EU rules and import requirements for honey and honey 
products 
5. plant health and pesticide residues Training  
ASEAN countries, hosted by Thailand 
CIS countries, hosted by Ukraine  Latin-American countries hosted by 
Chile  
Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, 
Uganda, Zimbabwe, hosted by 
Tanzania  
Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, 
Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Turkey, and some EU MS, hosted by Malta  
   G/SPS/GEN/1139
 Page 7Technical assistance provided to Members,  Observers and other countries:  Year 2011 
Member:  The European Union 
Sector Description of programme: Form of Assistance: Provided to: 
Food Safety Organisation of a BTSF training workshops 
1. on  food irradiation 
2. on food safety control systems 
3. on scientifically-based control of  mycotoxins in food and 
management of contaminated arable lands 
4. SPS and food safety requirements according to EU legislation 
and standards (two days) Training  
China 
Armenia Azerbaijan  Moldova 
Food Safety BTSF sustained training missions 
1. ASEAN training needs assessment 
2. EU food safety requirements  for poultry meat and red meat 
3. Fisheries and aquaculture 
4. Official controls on fishery products 
5. Methods for determination of mycotoxins in food matrices for 
the delegates from the  SENASA laboratory 
6. Laboratory training on veterinary drug residues 
7. Plant health issues Training  
ASEAN countries 
Russia Myanmar Myanmar Peru  
Malaysia  
Bangladesh 
Food Safety 
Contaminants 
Laboratory 
training A two-week hands-on training in state of the art laboratory techniques 
to test for the presence of:  
1. mycotoxins in food, 
 2. pesticides' residues in food, 
 
3. microbiological contaminants in food Soft infrastructure  
ID, BH, EG, RW, BR, BD, VN, PE, 
TH, GE, UY, ZA, JO, TN, MW
4  
JO, IL, MX, SD, MY, GH, CR, KE, 
VN, TH, EG, BR, MD, CN, CL5 
EG, JO, ID, GH, JM, NG, BR, AE, 
BF, TG, PY, BD, MW, BN, PH, MX, TH
6 
                                                      
4 Indonesia, Bahrain, Kingdom of, Egypt, Rwanda, Brazil, Bangladesh, Viet Nam, Peru, Thailand, Georgia, Uruguay, South Africa, J ordan, Tunisia, Malawi 
5 Jordan, Israel, Mexico, Sudan, Malaysia, Gh ana, Costa Rica, Kenya, Viet Nam, Thaila nd, Egypt, Brazil, Moldova, China, Chile 
6 Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Ghan a, Jamaica, Nigeria, Brazil, United Arab Emirat es, Burkina Faso, Togo, Paraguay, Bangladesh, Mal awi, Brunei, Philippines, Mexico, 
 Thailand  
  G/SPS/GEN/1139 
Page 8 Technical assistance provided to Members,  Observers and other countries:  Year 2011 
Member:  The European Union 
Sector Description of programme: Form of Assistance: Provided to: 
Food Safety Preparation meeting SPS assessment mission to Georgia + Assessment 
Mission on Georgia's progress in the SPS sector + Workshop on EU 
requirements for fish and fishery products imported  from third countries Training (Expert 
mission/workshop) Georgia 
Food Safety Expert Mission on the prioritization of the approximation process of 
Moldovan SPS legislation towards the EU acquis Information Moldova 
Food Safety Expert Mission on Approximation of legislation on food safety 
(four days) + Egypt's veterinary framework law Information/Training 
(Workshop) Egypt 
Food Safety 1.  Expert Mission on Analysis of Vitamins in Food Using HPLC 
Technique (one week)  
2. Expert Mission on the assessment of control systems for meat 
safety in slaughterhouses (one week) and Assessment mission 
on Food Safety 
3. Workshop on Food Balance Sheets (one day) 
4. Study Visit on  Detection of Food borne Norovirus (four days) Soft infrastructure  
 Information  
Training 
Information/training Jordan  
Food Safety Expert Mission on detection a nd quantification of veterinary drugs 
residues (five days) Information and soft 
infrastructure Lebanon  
Food Safety Expert Mission  to support the strategy of the harmonization of the 
veterinary teaching (five days) Information  Morocco 
Food Safety Expert Mission on the accreditation of laboratories according to 
ISO/IEC standards – fishery products (5 days) and one related to the accreditation of laboratories according to ISO/IEC standards 17025:2005 (five days) Information and soft 
infrastructure Morocco 
Food Safety Assessment mission on Sanitary and Phytosanitary  Policies (five days) Information Palestinian Authority 
Food Safety Workshop on salmonella contro l measures in poultry, poultry products 
and feed Training (Workshop) Ukraine  
   G/SPS/GEN/1139
 Page 9Technical assistance provided to Members,  Observers and other countries:  Year 2011 
Member:  The European Union 
Sector Description of programme: Form of Assistance: Provided to: 
Food Safety Towards Global Harmonisati on of GMO Analysis by creating and 
supporting Regional Networks of Ex cellence: Respond to the overall 
growing need for enhanced harmoni sation of means and methods in 
GMO analysis, aimed at building capacity by providing training to third countries enforcement laboratories in different geographical areas and at 
stimulating the establishment of regional networks outside the European 
Union following the concept of the E NGL in the framework of the EU 
policy. Soft infrastructure  Two groups of countries covered: 
1. Argentina, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, 
Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay hosted by 
Mexico 
2. Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Lao, 
People's Democratic Rep.; Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Viet Nam, China, Japan, South Korea hosted by Singapore 
    
Animal Health, Plant Protection and Food 
Safety To further develop Vietnam’s integration into the global, ASEAN and 
sub-regional trading systems and to enhance EU-Vietnam trade and investment relations, maximizing the benefits for the country's 
economic development, inclusive growth and poverty reduction. Information, training, soft 
infrastructure Viet Nam 
Animal Health, 
Plant Protection and Food Safety To support Moldova in the prepar ation and implementation of new 
contractual relations with the European Union (Association Agreement, DCFTA
7 and visa liberalization dialogue) and in meeting the objectives 
of the EU-Moldova ENP Action Plan. Soft infrastructure Moldova 
Animal Health, 
Plant Protection and Food Safety 2 Projects : one to enhance Armenia' s capacity to negotiate, conclude 
and implement the future Association Agreement, DCFTA, Visa Facilitation and Readmission Agreements between Armenia and the European Union and to meet the objectives of the EU-Armenia ENP 
Action Plan and the second one to assist in the implementation of a 
number of selected key areas of the ENP Action Plan, while assisting the Government of Armenia to prepare for the negotiations for a DCFTA and improving overall economic performance. Soft infrastructure Armenia 
                                                      
7 DCFTA= Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area  
  G/SPS/GEN/1139 
Page 10 Technical assistance provided to Members,  Observers and other countries:  Year 2011 
Member:  The European Union 
Sector Description of programme: Form of Assistance: Provided to: 
Animal Health, 
Plant Protection 
and Food Safety To support Georgia in the prepar ation and implementation of new 
contractual relations between Ge orgia and the European Union 
(Association Agreements, DCFTA, Visa Facilitation and Readmission Agreements and, eventually, a vi sa liberalisation road-map) and in 
meeting the objectives of the EU-Georgia ENP Action Plan. Soft infrastructure Georgia 
Animal Health, 
Plant Protection and Food 
Safety Creation of a competitive regional market in the context of the 
Economic Partnership Agreement Soft infrastructure, hard 
infrastructure Central African region 
Animal Health, 
Plant Protection 
and Food Safety To support increased and more divers ified exports of agricultural and 
agri-processed products to the EU markets Information, training, soft 
infrastructure Jamaica 
Animal Health, 
Plant Protection and Food Safety Expertise mission to support the constructi on of a laboratory Information and hard 
infrastructure  Algeria 
    
Rapid alert 
system for food and feed 
(RASFF) and 
TRACES
8 
system BTSF regional workshop: to inform beneficiary countries of how a 
RASFF can be established, what benef its it can bring at national level, 
and by extension what benefits it ca n bring at regional level to identify 
hazards related to food and feed trade. For TRACES the overall 
objective is to explain the system and to demonstrate the benefits it has in terms of trade facilitation.  Training  One for Latin America countries 
hosted by Peru  
One for Eastern Africa countries 
hosted by Kenya 
TRACES 
system For TRACES to explain the system and to demonstrate the benefits it 
has in terms of trade facilitation 
1. BTSF regional workshop 
2. BTSF sustained training mission Training One for Eastern African countries 
hosted by Tanzania and one for SADC countries hosted by South-Africa 
One training mission for Senegal and 
                                                      
8 Traces = TrAde Control Export System  
   G/SPS/GEN/1139
 Page 11Technical assistance provided to Members,  Observers and other countries:  Year 2011 
Member:  The European Union 
Sector Description of programme: Form of Assistance: Provided to: 
one for Tanzania 
Rapid alert 
system for food and feed BTSF sustained training mission to inform beneficiary countries of how 
a RASFF can be established, what benefits it can bring at national level, and by extension what benefits it ca n bring at regional level to identify 
hazards related to food and feed trade. Training Lao, People's Democratic Rep. 
 
 
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