. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/EST/1 
7 July 2005 
 (05-3013) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6. 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   ESTONIA
 
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):         
2. Agency responsible:   Ministry of Agriculture 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web-site 
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be  indicated if different from above:    
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications 
Telephone: (+372) 625 6405 
Fax:  (+372) 631 3029 
Email:  el.teavitamine@mkm.ee 
Website: www.mkm.ee 
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 (labelling) 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   Government of the 
Republic of Estonia Regulation “Amendment of the Government of the Republic of Estonia 
Regulation No.324 of 19 December 2003 Require ments for Labelling Food and Regulations 
for Communicating Labelling and Other Relevant  Information” (2 pages, in Estonian) 
6. Description of content:   The bill is aimed at amending the Government of the Republic of 
Estonia Regulation No.324 of December 2003 Requirements for Labelling Food and 
Regulations for Communicating Labelling and Other Form of Information (hereinafter Labelling Regulations) so as to guarantee that consumers are informed of any ingredients 
that may cause allergy in foods for which there is no requirement to list the ingredients on 
the sales package labelling.  Under § 4 (3) of the Labelling Regulations, such cases include 
foods with an area of less than 10 cm
2 of the biggest side of the sale package, beverages in 
permanently marked glass bottles for repeat u sage, but unlabelled, and foods in beauty 
packages, in the form of little figures or souveni rs.  According to §1 1) of the Bill, the first 
sentence of 4 (3) will be reworded so as to make communication of information on any 
allergy causing ingredients in the kinds of food described above obligatory. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
Under Article 13 (4) of the European Parlia ment and EU Council Directive 2000/13/EU on 
food labelling, small packages and certain glass bottles for repeat usage are exempt from the G/TBT/N/EST/1 
Page 2  
 
 requirement to communicate on the labelling the ingredients that may cause allergy. 
The 2000/13/EU Directive and the Labelling Regulat ions stipulate that the labelling of such 
foods only has to include the name, net quantity, and the minimum time of preservation or realisation or final date of consumption.  Under the Labelling Regulations, communication 
of ingredients that may cause allergy is not required with foods in beauty packages (little 
figures or souvenirs) either.  However, due to extensive occurrence of food allergy, any 
allergy causing ingredients should be visibl e on the labelling of all foods.  Since food 
allergy is not curable, this would be the only possibility for the people suffering from food 
allergy to avoid any respective ingredients. 
8. Relevant documents:   Government of the Republic of Estonia Regulation No.324 of 
19 December 2003 Requirements for Labelling Food and Regulations for Communicating 
marking and Other Relevant Information 
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:   }1 November 2005 
10. Final date for comments:   60 days from the day of notification 
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [  X ] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body: