WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/1068 
11 March 2011 
 (11-1241) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   Spanish 
  
 
ACTIONS AIMED AT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WTO AGREEMENT 
ON SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES 
 
Information submitted by the Inter-American Institute for
 
Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA ) 
 
  The following communication, received on 9 March 2011, is being circulated at the request of 
the IICA
. 
 
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 1. The observer organizations to the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) 
of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are invited to submit reports on the activities they have carried out to promote understandi ng and implementation of the SPS Agreement.  The IICA wishes to 
present some of the actions or activities it consid ers relevant to the work of this Committee. 
1. Support for participation in Codex Alimentarius meetings 
2. Using resources from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the IICA is 
implementing a project to support participation by  IICA member countries in Codex Alimentarius 
meetings. 
3. The United States Department of Agriculture is providing 75 per cent of the funds for this 
phase of the project, and the IICA 25 per cent.  This project is considered as a competitive fund since the available resources allow for support to no  more than a few countries per committee. 
4. The purpose of the project is to support activ e participation and st rengthen common regional 
interests.  Support is therefore given to initiatives that can be managed for that purpose by the Codex Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean. 
5. The third phase of the project, currently being implemented, covers the work of committees 
on food hygiene, food additives, food contaminan ts, pesticide residues and food labelling.  The 
fourth phase has already been announced and incl udes the committees on fresh fruit and vegetables, 
food import and export inspection and certification, and foods for special dietary uses.  The end of the 
fourth phase in 2011 will see the culmination of thr ee years of support for country participation in 
different Codex Committees (see table). 
6. In addition to facilitating participation in th e work of the committees, the project uses the 
IICA handbooks on good practices for participation and also provides for biennial courses on the 
Codex regulatory process.  As from this year, th e handbook on management of Codex committees and 
subcommittees for institution building will also be av ailable to countries.  This will serve to 
supplement active participation with capacity building. G/SPS/GEN/1068 
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  Project to Promote Participation by the Americas in the Codex Alimentarius 
Beneficiary Countries under the Initiative 
 
Committee Date Place Beneficiary Countries 
Fresh fruit and vegetables October 2009 Mexico Uruguay, Paraguay, 
Dominican Republic and 
Jamaica 
Nutrition and foods for special 
dietary uses November 2009 Germany Bolivia, Costa Rica and 
Paraguay 
Food hygiene November 2009 United St ates Bolivia, Guatemala, Jamaica, 
Nicaragua and Uruguay 
Food import and export inspection and certification 
systems March 2010 Australia Belize, Colombia, Dominica, 
Ecuador, El Salvador, 
Panama, Peru and Uruguay 
General principles April 2010 Fran ce Colombia*, Guatemala, Peru, 
Dominican Republic and Uruguay 
Pesticide residues April 2010 Chin a Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, 
Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay 
Food contaminants** April 2010 Turkey Argentina, Colombia, 
Costa Rica and Peru 
Food hygiene November- 
December 2010 Uganda Chile, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, 
Peru and Uruguay 
Food additives March 2011 China Costa Rica, Saint Lucia, 
Colombia, Peru 
Food contaminants March 2011 Netherlands Peru, Costa Rica, Barbados, Nicaragua 
Pesticide residues April 2011 China Jamaica, Ecuador, Uruguay, Colombia 
Labelling May 2011 Canada Dominica, Uruguay, 
Panama, Bolivia 
Fresh fruit and vegetables May 2011 Mexico To be defined 
Inspection and certification October 2011 Australia To be defined 
Nutrition and foods for special 
dietary uses November 2011 Germany To be defined 
Food hygiene December 2011 United States To be defined 
*Colombia was one of the countries selected to participate in the 26th Meeting of the Codex Committee on 
General Principles.  However, the Colombian delegate was unable to make the journey. 
**For the Fourth Meeting of the Committee on Contamin ants, air traffic was paralyzed on account of the 
ash cloud, so that we were obliged to suspend participation in the meeting.  G/SPS/GEN/1068 
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  7. During implementation of this project, the IIC A may put forward a number of conclusions 
concerning projects of this type: 
(a) Support for active participation in inte rnational forums (in this case, the 
Codex Alimentarius) must be linked to capacity building. 
(b) Countries must "earn" their right to attend by reporting on the level of impact:  
otherwise, the impact of the funds used may be negligible. 
(c) A minimum structure at national level (Code x Committee) is essential to deriving 
benefit from these initiatives. 
(d) The exchange of experiences between countri es with different levels of institutional 
development is extremely effective and contributes to speeding up the processes of 
change and empowerment in countries that are taking their first steps. 
(e) Given the political and institutional changes that take place within countries, training 
in international affairs must be provided at least every three years, since rotation 
policies mean that new staff without expe rience are taken on while those that have 
received training and learned country-representation skills leave their jobs. 
(f) Given the characteristics of some countries, it is essential to implement regional 
capacity-building projects. 
8. It is hoped that more resources will be made ava ilable for continuation of the project, in order 
to promote capacity building as well as active participation.  For further information, please contact:  ricardo.molins@iica.int (Ricardo Molin s), erick.bolanos@iica.int (Eric Bolaños). 
2. Food safety symposium 
9. The IICA, through the Uruguay office and the Agricultural Health and Food Safety (AHFS) 
and agribusiness and marketing programmes, and in  conjunction with the Permanent Veterinary 
Committee of the Southern Cone (CVP) and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, organized a 
symposium on the safety of food of animal origin on 15 February 2011 in Montevideo, Uruguay.  There were 307 participants.  For further inform ation, please contact:  Lourdes.fonalleras@iica.int 
(Lourdes Fonalleras). 
3. Leadership module on food safety 
10. The third module in the second series of the Executive Leadership in Food Safety (ELFS) 
programme was implemented in Bogotá, Colombia .  It was attended by 34 young leaders from 
20 countries, together with 10 mentors, and it w as organized by the IICA in cooperation with the 
University of Minnesota and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).  For further 
information, please contact:  ricardo.molins@iica. int (Ricardo Molins), ana.cordero@iica.int 
(Ana Marisa Cordero). 
4. Support for the SPS Committee on Ce ntral American Integration 
11. The IICA is continuing to provide support to th e Central American countries in meetings of 
the SPS subgroup in the context of the Central Ameri can Customs Union Round.  At those meetings, 
the IICA supported the development and revision of normative proposals for Central American 
regulations on various topics, such as good hygiene practices for unprocessed products.  G/SPS/GEN/1068 
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  The proposals have been transmitted to the WTO by  the countries concerned for public discussion.  
For further information, please contact:  Alejandra.diaz@iica.int (Alejandra Diaz). 
Inter American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) 
Agricultural Health and Food Safety 
http://www.infoagro.net/salud
 
http://www.iica.int/  
 
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