. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/655 
27 March 2006 
 (06-1359) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   Spanish 
  
 
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SPS AGREEMENT 
 
Information for the Workshop of 31 March 2006
 
 
Communication from Cuba  
 
  The following communication, received on 23 Marc h 2006, is being circulated at the request 
of the delegation of Cuba. 
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1. In order to prepare for the workshop on impl ementation of the SPS Agreement, participants 
were invited to answer the following questions.  These are the replies of Ms Eva Maria Quintana. 
2. A small and blockaded developing country obvi ously has budgetary limitations that prevent 
experts from the Capital from attending all meeti ngs of the SPS Committee.  As a rule, those who 
participate in the Committee most regularly ar e the representatives of the Mission at Geneva.  
However, every effort is made to secure participa tion by Capital-based specialists, whether the focal 
point or the national enquiry point.  In Cuba, these are: 
• Focal Point:  Ms Eva María Quintana, Trade Policy Specialist, Directorate of 
International Bodies, Ministry of Foreign Trade; 
• Enquiry Point:  Dr Roberto Bolaños, Specia list, Institute of Veterinary Medicine; 
• Enquiry Point:  Mr Julio Piedrahita, National Plant Health Centre; 
• Enquiry Point:  Dr María Victoria Luna , National Institute of Food Hygiene. 
3. The country has a National Group made up of va rious institutions which deals with the SPS 
Committee in connection with the Agreement on Agricu lture.  It also has a Technical Working Group, 
that analyses sanitary and phyto sanitary prescriptions received from the WTO Secretariat, which are 
circulated countrywide to all interested, both in a nd outside the Capital.  The members of this group 
are the national authorities/enquiry points referred to  in the previous paragraph, the Ministry of 
Foreign Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry for the Food Industry, the Ministry for Sugar, 
the Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of Cuba  and the Centre for the Promotion of Exports. 
4. The Capital receives the information availa ble on the WTO website, the documents made 
available in the meeting room and the reports of  Mission delegates on the meetings they attend. 
5. The focal point is responsible for circulating th e prescriptions.  It distributes them to interest 
groups so that the information is disseminated early on .  Monitoring is the next stage and is the job of 
the Working Group, which meets once a month.  Thus, any prescriptions that are of interest to one or 
another body are immediately analysed by the Group and passed on to the focal point so that G/SPS/GEN/655 
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information can be sought from the senders of the not ified prescriptions.  A strategy is also drawn up 
to enable the country to respond as neces sary to new demands of trading partners. 
6. Cuba's experience of technical assistance relates to the assistance received from the WTO 
through the workshops and expert meetings it sponsors at national or  regional level or in Geneva.  
Cuba identifies technical assistance needs by means of the questionnaires sent by the WTO.  
However, the growing number and complexity of the new sanitary and phytosanitary measures that 
are being applied, particularly by the devel oped countries, mean a substantial increase in 
infrastructure, workload, equipment, staff and technology which the economies and exporters of 
developing countries are unable to assume on their own.   Nor are they able to adapt rapidly to these 
requirements. 
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