WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/1045 
11 October 2010 
 
 (10-5185) 
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 8 October 2010, is being circulated at the request of the IICA
. 
 
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 1. The observer organizations of 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. Closure of STDF 108 Project 
2. The final report on the STDF 108 Project was presented to the WTO.  The Project undertook 
numerous activities pertaining to sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) in 28 IICA member countries.  Its outcomes included developing 26 national SPS agendas by applying the IICA's new 
PVS tool for national SPS systems, and the impl ementation of four regional sub-projects.  
Furthermore, the following documents we re published in English and Spanish: 
- Handbooks of good practices for particip ation in international SPS forums 
(Codex, IPPC, OIE and the WTO SPS Committee); 
- methodology for creating phytosanitary hazard profiles for plants; - an audit manual for national notification systems; 
 - procedural manual for National Codex Committees; 
Moreover, a Codex and SPS inform ation management system was adapted to the institutional 
structure of another five countries and numer ous technical personnel were trained in the 
aforementioned methods and topics across 28 countries of the Americas. 
3. This project is far from over because its topi cs are such that many of its activities can be 
implemented and followed up over time.  Three more  national STDF projects are soon to begin, with 
the IICA as the implementing agency.  They will be  located in Ecuador, Nicaragua and Colombia.  
For further information, please contact:  ricardo.molins@iica.int
 (Ricardo Molins), 
erick.bolanos@iica.int  (Eric Bolaños). G/SPS/GEN/1045 
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  2. Audits for notification processes 
4. The IICA has initiated a process of application of  the audit manual for SPS notifications in 
preparation for the workshop on transparency.  The process was begun in Costa Rica, Panama, 
Colombia, Peru and Paraguay.  This manual is in tended to provide countries with a methodology for 
evaluating the different elements that positively or  negatively impact their notification procedures, 
and for identifying the actions needed to improve on  the current situation.  For further information, 
please contact:  erick.bolanos@iica.int
 (Eric Bolaños). 
3. Support for the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) in studying the draft 
phytosanitary standards 
5. The annual meeting of Caribbean countries to discuss IPPC Standards was organized by the 
IICA in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, from 6 to 10 September 2010.  Fourteen countries 
participated in the meeting, which was the second su ch event, a similar meeting having taken place at 
the IICA headquarters from 30 August to 3 Se ptember with 19 countries of Latin America 
participating.  As a result of these events and ot her training and institutional upgrading activities, the 
IICA and the IPPC are looking into the possibility of  signing an agreement to offer cooperation to the 
countries of the Americas.  For further information, please contact:  ricardo.molins@iica.int  
(Ricardo Molins). 
4. Support for participation in Codex Alimentarius meetings 
6. The third phase of the project to support the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in 
participating in Codex Alimentarius Committee me etings is now under way.  It encompasses the 
meetings on food hygiene, food additives, food contam inants, pesticide residues, and those of another 
committee that will be reported on subsequently. 
7. The United States Department of Agriculture is providing 75 per cent of the funds for this 
phase and the IICA 25 per cent.  This project is  considered as a competitive fund, because the 
available resources allow for support to no more than five countries per committee, whereas there are 32 countries that can compete for these benefits. 
8. It is important to recall that the project is not  aimed at building capacity through participation, 
but at supporting active participation and strengthe ning common regional interests.  The countries 
supported are therefore those for which there is an obvious link between the significance of the topics of the committee and the constraints on their partic ipation.  Institutional and other kinds of capacity 
building are addressed using other strategies since par ticipation is clearly of little effect when it comes 
to institutional sustainability. 
9. Another similar activity, albeit not included in  this project, was the support given to 
four countries of the Americas to enable them  to participate in the upcoming meeting of the 
Working Group on the Labelling of Foods and Food Ingredients obtained through Certain Techniques 
of Genetic Modification/Genetic Engineering, schedul ed for November this year in Brussels, Belgium 
(special meeting in the framework of the Codex Committee on Labelling).  In support of this process, 
a videoconference was held with eight countries to  discuss technical aspects and country positions, 
and this helped invigorate the discussion at the regiona l level.  For further information, please contact:  
ricardo.molins@iica.int
 (Ricardo Molins), erick.bolanos@iica.int  (Eric Bolaños). 
5. Inter-agency coordination in risk communication 
10. The Inter-agency meeting on risk communication took place at the IICA headquarters in 
San José and was attended by representatives of PAHO, OIE, UNICEF, USDA, CFIA, OCHA, CDC  G/SPS/GEN/1045 
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  and IICA.  The meeting was part of the activities pl anned to begin developing a comprehensive risk 
communication programme under the IICA's Agri cultural Health and Food Safety (AHFS) 
programme.  For further in formation, please contact:  ana.cordero@iica.int  (Ana Marisa Cordero). 
6. Specific activities 
11. On 2 and 3 September the IICA supported the Secretariat for Central American Economic 
Integration (SIECA) and the Executive Secretar iat of the Central American Agricultural 
Council (SECAC) in holding a seminar/workshop on san itary and phytosanitary measures, organized 
so as to share with the Panamanian authorities th e sanitary and phytosanitary advances taking place at 
the Central American Customs Union and Central Am erican Agricultural Policy levels.  For further 
information, please contact:  Alejandra.diaz@iica.int  (Alejandra Diaz). 
12. Support was provided in organizing and staging a regional workshop on pest risk analysis, 
which was undertaken jointly by SIECA, SECAC and the IICA as part of the plan to implement the Central American Agricultural Policy.  The workshop took place in Honduras from 8-10 September with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Hondur as and Nicaragua participating.  One of the 
outcomes of the workshop was a proposed Central Amer ican guideline on the preparation of pest risk 
analyses, drafted by the participants.  For further information, please contact:  Alejandra.diaz@iica.int
 
(Alejandra Diaz). 
13. The workshop on good practices for participati on in international forums for Trinidad and 
Tobago, Guyana and Suriname has taken place.  Among the participants were Rolf Schoenert 
representing CFIA (Canada) and Delilah Cabb re presenting BAHA (Belize), as country experts.  
There were 45 participants in the workshop, which dealt with good participation practices for 
meetings of the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Ph ytosanitary Measures, th e International Plant 
Protection Convention and the Codex Alimentarius .  For further information, please contact:  
ana.cordero@iica.int  (Ana Marisa Cordero). 
14. Two workshops on food safety risk assessment (chemical and microbiological hazards) were 
held from 12-23 July, jointly organized by the IICA and the Food Processing Center, University of 
Nebraska-Lincoln.  The course was held for Guat emala, Mexico, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, 
Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Costa Rica.  Th ere were 43 professionals in attendance.  For 
further information, please contact:  Ericka.calderon@iica.int  (Erica Calderon). 
15. Six workshops were held from 27-29 July on good practices for participation in 
SPS measures:  three for the Central Region (p lus the Dominican Republic) and three for the 
Andean region.  The topics examined were the WTO SPS Committee, the Codex Alimentarius and the 
IPPC.  There was an average of ten participants pe r country.  For further information, please contact:  
erick.bolanos@iica.int  (Eric Bolaños). 
16. A course on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs)  was organized by SENASA and the IICA 
and held from 27-29 September in Buenos Aires,  Argentina.  The course was designed to build 
capacity among officials from national and provinc ial institutions responsible for coordinating the 
implementation of GAPs, and in the demonstration units  in the various subregions of Argentina.  The 
work revolved around specific targets for increasi ng and upgrading implem entation coordinators' 
technical knowledge of GAPs;  capacity building fo r GAPs coordinators in terms of transfer of 
technology and incentives for adopting technology tr ansfer;  updating the vision and information of 
SENASA and the provinces regarding the GAPs strate gy and the objectives, guidelines and actions of 
the SENASA programme;  and encouraging provinces to  participate in the programme.  For further 
information, please contact:  Lourdes.fonalleras@iica.int  (Lourdes Fonalleras). G/SPS/GEN/1045 
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  17. In September, the IICA provided support to Ecuador in the form of a capacity-building 
module for local markets, in which 12 agri-business organizations participated.  The module included 
topics such as the preparation of a production plan with a view to local marketing, requirements for 
the marketing of food in Ecuador, the importance of quality and safety for agribusiness enterprises, 
and the implementation of Good Manufacturing Prac tices (GMPs).  In addition, the IICA supports 
countries through export platforms, with a view to  building the capacities of small and medium-size 
agro-exporters.  For further information, please contact:  marcos.sanchez@iica.int
 (Marcos Sanchez). 
Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Cooperation (IICA) 
Agricultural Health and Food Safety 
http://www.infoagro.net/salud  
http://www.iica.int/  
 
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