WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/47 
16 November 2007 
 (07-5015) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures  
  
 
  
REPORT TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN GOODS 
ON CHINA'S TRANSITIONAL REVIEW 
  
 The present report is submitted under the responsib ility of the Chairperson, as agreed by the 
Committee at its meeting of 18-19 October 2007.  
_______________ 
  
1. The Committee held its sixth Annual Transitiona l Review under Paragraph 18 of the Protocol 
of the Accession of the People's Republic of China at the regular meeting commencing on 18 October 2006.  
2. Prior to the meeting, the United States and th e European Communities submitted questions in 
writing to China, which can be found in doc uments G/SPS/W/213 and G/SPS/W/216, respectively. 
3. Statements made at the Committee meeting in the context of this transitional review by China, 
by the European Communities and the United States will be reflected in the Summary Report of the 
meeting, to be circulated as G/SPS/R/46 (excerpt attached).   
 
 
_______________ 
 
  G/SPS/47 
Page 2  
 
  ATTACHMENT - EXCERPT FROM G/SPS/R/46  
AGENDA ITEM 12:  TRANSITIONAL REVIEW UNDER PARAGRAPH 18 OF THE 
PROTOCOL OF ACCESSION OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA 
1. The Chairman recalled that in accordance with Paragraph 18 of the Protocol of Accession of 
the People's Republic of China, the SPS Committee is to undertake an annual review for eight years of 
the implementation by China of the SPS Agreement.   He opened the floor for comments or questions 
from Members. 
2. The representative of the United States recalled th at in its submission for the 2007 transitional 
review (G/SPS/GEN/213), the United States had presen ted a comprehensive account of its concerns.  
These related to China's:  (1) sanitary regulations applied to US products with the stated purpose of 
preventing the introduction of BSE, avian influenza, food-borne pathogens and residues;  (2) varietal 
restrictions on apples;  (3) lack of transparency;  and (4) implementation of national treatment obligations.  A few of the concerns had particular  importance since they had been going on for many 
years.   
3. The first concern related to China's conti nued imposition of BSE-re lated restrictions on 
imports of beef and beef products from the Unite d States that exceeded those recommended by the 
OIE.  In May 2007, the OIE had classified the United States as a controlled risk for BSE.  The OIE recognized that trade in beef and beef products fro m cattle of all ages from a "controlled risk" country 
was safe, provided that certain slaughter and b eef processing conditions were met, including the 
removal of specified risk materials (SRMs).  The United States requested China to explain why it had 
failed to base its measures on OIE guidelines regardi ng the import of US beef and beef products, in 
accordance with Articles 3 and 5 of the SPS Agreement,  and to provide a copy of its risk assessment 
if China had performed one. 
4. The United States was also concerned that China imposed additional BSE-related import 
restrictions on US protein-free tallow, a product which was recognized by the OIE as safe to trade regardless of the BSE status of the exporting region.  On this issue, China w as requested to explain its 
failure to base its measures on OIE guidelines. 
5. Another important concern of the United Stat es regarded China's de-listing of US poultry 
establishments based on a zero-tolerance requirement  for certain pathogens, such as salmonella on 
raw meat and poultry products, incons istent with the Codex standards.  China appeared to mistakenly 
apply Codex standards for ready-to-eat products to  raw products.  This requirement was unnecessarily 
trade restrictive within the meaning of Article 5 of  the SPS Agreement.  Furthermore, it seemed that 
China did not enforce this zero-tolerance requireme nt to domestically produced meat and poultry 
products.  The representative of the United States asked China to explain how it applied its zero-
tolerance requirement to its equivalent domestic pr oducts. and if this were not the case, requested 
China to review its domestic enforcement to en sure conformity with Article 2.3 of the SPS 
Agreement.  
6. Finally, the representative of the United Stat es highlighted concerns regarding residue 
standards.  China had de-listed several US pork est ablishments due to its ban on ractopamine, a swine 
feed ingredient.  This restriction was based on a blanket ban of beta-agonist s drugs.  However, the 
United States was unaware of any risk assessment conducted by China to evaluate ractopamine.  
Codex had established a draft standard (MRL) fo r ractopamine based on recommendations from the 
FAO/WHO Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives.  The draft standard for ractopamine would be 
considered for final approval at the July 2008 meet ing of the Codex Alimentarius Commission.  In 
this context, the representative of the United Stat es asked China to explain how it had taken Codex  G/SPS/47 
 Page 3 
 
 
  recommendations into account in the development of  its ban on ractopamine and asked whether China 
had completed a risk assessment.  
7. The representative of the European Commun ities welcomed further improvements in the 
relationship between China and the European Communities including improvements in bilateral 
consultations between the Chinese authorities and EC member States.  The European Communities 
also welcomed recent Chinese efforts to improve food safety and to increase pre-export testing of 
consignments.  However, the European Communiti es regretted that China's notification process, 
which had started well, was now dramatically slowin g down despite an increase in China's legislative 
activity in the SPS area.  Furthermore, China had not yet aligned its animal health legislation to the 
OIE guidelines, although adherence to OIE was a fundamental requirement for WTO Members. 
8. The European Communities also encouraged China to improve its national information 
network, in other words, the flow of inform ation between the competent national and regional 
services, in order to avoid inconsistency in SPS measures or procedures.   
9. The representative of the Europ ean Communities also highlighted  the currently limited access 
to the Chinese market for food products, due largely to imposition of restrictive SPS standards.  The 
enforcement of food controls in China placed relia nce on end-product testing, that often created a 
significant barrier to trade.  
10. The representative of the European Co mmunities welcomed China's notification 
G/SPS/N/CHN/100, which brought important changes to  the existing rule for exports to China of 
cosmetic products.  In particular, the proposed  change modified the management measures for 
cosmetics imported from BSE-infected areas in accordance with the OIE recommendations.   
11. However, the European Communities was otherw ise concerned about China's interpretation 
of OIE guidelines on BSE.  The OIE issued a list of bovine products which could be safely traded, 
regardless of the BSE status of a country, am ong which was de-boned skeletal muscle meat from 
cattle 30 months of age or less.  Despite these guide lines, EC beef and bovine meat products were still 
banned by China.  In addition, bovine semen and em bryos were subject to restrictions in China in 
contradiction to the OIE recommendations.  
12. Lastly, the representative of the European Co mmunities indicated that compliance with the 
Chinese plant regulatory import system was unjustif iably difficult in that many of the import 
requirements went beyond the IPPC  recommenda tions.  However, recent communication flow 
between the European Communiti es and the Chinese authorities had improved considerably and the 
European Communities welcomed the positive attitude shown by China in this regard and looked 
forward to more efficient, rapid Chinese procedures.  
13. The representative of China stated that the co mpetent authorities had been actively engaging 
in dialogues with their counterparts in the Unite d States and European Communities in the spirit of 
finding mutually satisfactory solutions to issues of interest to all sides.  Issues identified in the 
submissions had also appeared on the agendas of bilateral talks.   
14. Some of the issues had already been c overed in the Committee meeting, and the 
representative of China  therefore focussed on some of  the other issues.  According to the relevant 
OIE guidelines, controlled BSE risk countries should trace and supervise relevant cattle relating to 
BSE cases, and such cattle should be destroyed.  Ho wever, complete tracing of cattle related to BSE 
cases had not been fully realized in the United Stat es, and in some cases, the related farms were not 
even found.  Also, according to relevant OIE guidelin es, feed bans should be effectively enforced, and 
ruminants should not be fed with meat, bone meal and tallow derived from ruminants.  Unfortunately, 
the United States did not seem to have a policy in place to ensure these requirements were met.  As G/SPS/47 
Page 4  
 
  the United States recognized in its submission, Chin a had agreed to resume import of US boneless 
beef from animals up to 30 months of age in July 2006,  and then agreed this year to the resumption of 
bone-in beef from animals up to 30 months of age.  These decisions were in line with relevant OIE 
guidelines.  China's competent authorities were not  convinced that it was safe for China to import 
other US beef.  China hoped that the US Government would strictly follow the feed ban 
recommended by the OIE, establish a complete traci ng system for cattle, and ensure the security and 
traceability of beef exported to the Chinese market.  China encouraged the Unite d States to work with 
the Chinese authorities to first resume trade in b eef from animals up to 30 months of age.  
15. As to protein-free tallow, the representativ e of China recalled that the OIE guidelines 
indicated that only protein-free bovine tallow, of which the content of infusible impurity was less than 
0.15 per cent, could be traded freely, and any b ovine products containing SR M should not be traded. 
China permitted protein-free tallow meeting its regu lations as well as the international standard to 
enter its market. 
16. China was revising its sampling plans and microbiological criteria for food-borne pathogens, 
which would be identical to those of the Intern ational Commission of Microbiological Specifications 
for Foods (ICMSF), and completed in 2008.  Once th ese new criteria were established, China would 
conduct a review and set the maximum microbiologi cal limits in food commodities accordingly.  
Regarding residue standards, China did not a llow ractopamine, a beta-agonist, as a swine-feed 
ingredient due to its cumulative nature.  Consump tion of meat from swine treated by ractopamine 
could cause side-effects to the human heart and ne rvous system.  For this reason, the use of 
ractopamine was forbidden in over 160 countries and regions. 
17. The representative of China noted that transparency was an im portant principle in the SPS 
Agreement and the Committee was well aware of what  China had done in the past six years to 
contribute to the transparency discussions and fulf il its obligations under the SPS Agreement.  China 
had a mechanism to ensure that SPS measures falling in to the criteria of those to be notified under the 
SPS Agreement were notified.  Among the 21 measur es identified by the United States, some were 
notified a long time ago, some were established fo r domestic management onl y, and others were 
meant to intensify quality and safety of products for export and so were actually trade facilitating 
measures.  China's understanding of transparency un der SPS was that they notified what they found 
necessary to notify instead of all measures. No tifying measures complying with international 
standards would have no significant trade effect  and increased the burdens to trading partners, 
especially developing country Members.  Yesterday,  China submitted three new SPS notifications to 
the Secretariat for circulation, and again it mana ged to provide a 60-day comment period starting from 
the date of circulation by the Secretariat. 
18. The representative of China emphasized that treat ment of products produced domestically or 
imported was the same.  There was always the po ssibility for an exporter or importer to lodge a 
complaint and/or ask for re-inspection of the goods if these were found by Chinese port inspection 
and quarantine authorities to be non compliant.  
19. The Chairman informed the Committee that he  would make a short factual report of the 
transitional review to the Council for Trade in Goods. 
__________