WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/SPS/GEN/1166 
4 July 2012 
 (12-3566) 
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
REPORT ON ACTIVITIES 
 
Communication from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 
 
 
 The following communication, received on 3 July 2012, is being circulated at the request of 
ISO. 
 
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1. The International Organization for Standardizati on (ISO) has prepared this information paper 
as part of ongoing updates and communication between  the the SPS Committee and the ISO Central 
Secretariat.  It provides a summary of current work undertaken by ISO that may be of interest to members of the WTO SPS Committee and is in tended to support and enhance dialogue and 
coordination between the two organizations. 
A. I
NTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR STANDARDIZATION (ISO) 
2. General information regard ing ISO can be found on http://www.iso.org/ .  The ISO portfolio 
counts nearly 19,200 international standards which have been developed by 217 technical committees 
and 493 subcommittees managing some 2,399 working groups.  
B. ISO' S INTERNATIONAL STATUS  
3. ISO has a specific status with many UN agencies,  including the WHO and FAO.  It is also an 
observer at the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE), the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS). 
4. ISO's observer status to the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) provides an opportunity 
for the coordination of issues related to a variety of  ISO standards that are adopted and used by Codex 
in its work. ISO methods have been endorsed in the document " Recommended methods of analysis 
and sampling"  (CODEX STAN 234-1999 ) which is updated each year during the Codex Committee on 
Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CCMAS) meeting. 
5. ISO and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), signed a formal agreement in 
July 2011 regarding liaisons and cooperation in specific areas. 
6. ISO organized, in cooperation with the CAC, the FAO, the OIE and the Global Food Safety 
Initiative (GFSI), a regional workshop on safe and su stainable fisheries, on 13-16 September 2011, in 
Bali, Indonesia.  Thirteen countries (with representa tives of national standards institutes, government 
and industry) from East and South East Asia participated in this regional workshop.  
7. This workshop was an opportunity to demonstrate each organization's complementarity, and 
together provide a valuable service to emer ging players in East and Southeast Asia. G/SPS/GEN/1166 
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  8. ISO also organized, in cooperation with the CA C, the OIE and UNIDO, a regional workshop 
on standards contribution to the food sector in A frica, in Nairobi, Kenya, on 24-25 April 2012.  
Thirty-five African countries were invited, as well as countries from other parts of the world.  The 120 participants (from national standardization bodies, governments and industry) were provided useful 
information about food safety in different food secto rs.  It allowed the participants to share their 
experiences, and their knowledge, thus to benchmar k the different national practices.  Moreover, the 
participants discovered the roles and tools provid ed by the different international organizations 
present. 
9. This workshop reached its goal to  enhance awareness of the pa rticipants in terms of food 
safety and the role of the different internationa l organizations, and also to share experiences and 
information on this topic. 
C. ISO
 AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES  
10. Since 1960, ISO has had a policy development committee (DEVCO) that deals specifically 
with the needs of developing countries in standard ization.  Developing countries need to focus both 
on acquiring world-class technological competen ce and on achieving a good understanding of the 
technical requirements underlying global trade.  Fo r 50 years, ISO has been assisting in both these 
areas through ISO/DEVCO.  DEVCO's membership  comprises 147 national standards institutes from 
industrialized as well as developing countries.  (Find more about DEVCO on http://www.iso.org/iso/resources/developing_countries.htm.) 
11. In 2011, ISO/DEVCO carried out three projects in  relation to ISO 22000 technical assistance, 
and three events are planned in 2012 (see Annex 2).  The main objective is to improve awareness of 
key stakeholders in developing countries of the ro le of such standards in economic growth, world 
trade and their contribution to sustainable developmen t.  Two events were organized with the further 
objective of building capacity by means of a regional workshop on fisheries safety, quality, 
productivity and sustainability in Bali, Indonesia a nd a regional workshop on standards contribution 
to the food sector in Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. In  addition, three sponsorships were provided in 2011 
to individuals from developing countries to attend the meeting of ISO/TC 34/SC 17 on management 
systems for food safety, 4-7 October 2011 in Dublin, Ireland. 
D. ISO
 TECHNICAL WORK UPDATES  
12. The priority areas of mutual interest on wh ich ISO would like to maintain and nurture 
dialogue with the SPS Committee are the work of IS O/TC 34 on food products and the generic work 
of the ISO committee on conformity assessment (ISO/CASCO). 
13. A brochure has recently been published by ISO to summarize the work done in ISO in 
relation to food.  It can be found at http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_and_food.pdf . 
E. ISO' S CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT STANDARDS AND THEIR USE IN FOOD SAFETY  
14. ISO is an international standards' devel oper and does not itself undertake assessments of 
conformity of products, management systems, pro cesses or services against the requirements of the 
standards it produces.  ISO does, however, produ ce international standards and guides on how 
assessment of conformity should take place – this is the role of ISO/CASCO.  CASCO comprises 
119 members.  CASCO maintains liaison with 18 in ternational organizations in addition to the 
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC):  International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), International Confederation of Inspection and 
Certification Organisations (CEOC), European Fe deration of Associations of Certification bodies 
(EFAC), European Organization for Quality (EOQ), Eu ropean Federation of National Associations of   G/SPS/GEN/1166 
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  Measurement , Testing and Analytical Laboratories (EUROLAB), International Accreditation Forum, 
Inc. (IAF), International Federation of Standards Us ers (IFAN), International Federation of Inspection 
Agencies (IFIA), Independent International Orga nization for Certification (IIOC), International 
Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation (ILAC), Latin  American Institute for Quality Assurance 
(INLAC), International Personnel Cer tification Association (IPC), Inte rnational Certification Network 
Association (IQNet), Telecommunication Standardiza tion Sector (ITU-T), International Organization 
of Legal Metrology (OIML), International Uni on of Independent Laboratories (UILI) and United 
Nations Framework Conve ntion on Climate Change  (UNFCCC). 
15. CASCO is currently developing the following documents: 
− ISO/IEC TS 17021-2, Conformity assessment - Competen ce requirements for certification 
auditing of environmental management systems  
− ISO/IEC TS 17021-3, Conformity assessment - Requirements  for third party certification auditing 
of quality management systems — Competence requirements   
− ISO/IEC 17024, Conformity assessment - General  re quirements for bodies operating certification 
of persons  
− ISO/IEC 17065, Conformity assessment - General re quirements for bodies operating product 
certification systems  
− ISO/IEC 17067 , Conformity assessment - Fundam entals of product certification 
16. CASCO established a joint working group with ISO/TC 34/SC 17 for the revision of 
ISO 22003:2007, Food safety management systems - Re quirements for bodies providing audit and 
certification of food safety management systems .  This will address in mo re detail the competence 
criteria for food safety management system auditors. 
17. ISO/IEC 17020:2012, Conformity assessment - Requirements for the operation of various 
types of bodies performing inspection  and ISO/IEC TS 17022:2012, Conformity assessment - 
Requirements and recommendations for the conten t of a third-party audit report on management 
systems  were both published in March 2012. 
F. CODEX AND ISO/TC 34  COOPERATION  
18. There is a long history of collaboration be tween the Codex Committees and ISO/TC 34, Food 
products .  ISO/TC 34 supports the establishment of an ongoing and sustainable framework for 
collaboration between Codex and ISO, in order to enhance the mutual coordination of work and the 
elimination of duplication and contradictions.  This  also includes interest to support any joint or 
collaborative communication on each others' work. 
19. Codex and ISO activities are complementary.  Codex, as a governmental organization, 
prepares documents to assist governments in their statutory and regulatory work to protect their 
citizens from health hazards caused by food consum ption.  ISO, as a non-governmental organization, 
prepares standards in particular on test methods to  assist stakeholders along the whole food chain to 
fulfil both the statutory and regulatory requirements, as well as the requirements of consumers of 
these products. ISO/TC 34 also works on how to i nvolve more developing countries in the works. 
20. Since its creation in 1947, ISO/TC 34 has published more than 780 ISO deliverables 
(International Standards, Technical Specifications  and Technical Reports). 65 % of these documents 
are test methods.  See Annex 1 for the structure of ISO/TC 34 and a list of projects/publications of 
interest to Codex. G/SPS/GEN/1166 
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  21. ISO/TC 34 held its plenary meeting in April 2012 in Nairobi, Kenya in order to foster 
involvement of African developing countries.  A regional workshop on standards contribution to the 
food sector in Africa was organized during the meet ing.  There were representatives from Codex and 
OIE present during this workshop. 
22. ISO/TC 34/SC 17 developed its strategic plan fo r 2011-2015;  this document is available at 
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso-tc34- sc17_n0177_strategy_plan_2011-21.pdf. 
23. ISO/TC 34 will continue to offer its full suppor t and cooperation to the CAC with a view to 
avoiding duplication of work and will adopt, for its own documents, the conclusions of the CAC on 
all matters concerning food hygiene requirements. 
G. C
ONCLUSION  
24. It is recognized that the S PS Committee Members, as governments, have the authority to 
regulate at the national level and that ISO, as a pr oducer of voluntary international standards, does 
not. In the framework of good regulatory practice, as promoted at international and regional levels, 
international standards and guides may be considered  useful by regulators as effective and efficient 
tools to achieve important regulatory mandates,  manage risk and address market confidence. 
25. ISO considers that by using its international standards, regulatory authorities will achieve 
their aims in public health and safety at less cost to manufacturers and consumers.  Using international 
standards also assists countries to meet their WTO TBT and SPS Agreement obligations. 
26. For any further information on technical developm ents within ISO that have been reported in 
this paper, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs. Marie-Noëlle Bourquin at ISO Central Secretariat 
(bourquin@iso.org).  G/SPS/GEN/1166 
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  ANNEX 1 
 
Structure of ISO/TC 34, Food products  
 
  ISO/TC 34 comprises 51 Participating c ountries and 58 Observing countries. ISO/TC 34 
secretariat is held jointly by France and Brazil (twinning arrangement). ISO/TC 34 has established 
several substructures [active structures are: 15 s ubcommittees (SC) and 5 working groups (WG)]; the 
development of important horizon tal standards being under the r esponsibility of working groups 
directly reporting to ISO/TC 34.  These substructures are the following:  
 
 
 It can be noted that out of these 15 subc ommittees, only four are horizontal in scope 
(ISO/TC 34/SC 9, ISO/TC 34/SC 12, ISO/TC 34/SC 16 and ISO/TC 34/SC 17). G/SPS/GEN/1166 
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  ANNEX 2 
 
Overview of ISO 22000 technical assistance projects carried out in 2011 and those planned for 2012 
 
 
Objective 1: Improve awareness of key stakehol ders in developing countries of the role of 
standardization in economic growth, world trade and sustainable development 
 
Title Venue/Host Dates Total 
participantsSponsored 
participants Beneficiary 
countries 
National seminar on 
ISO 22000 - Food 
safety management systems Sarajevo, 
Bosnia & 
Herzegovina 30 May-
1 June 2011 61 0 Bosnia & 
Herzegovina 
National seminar on 
ISO 22000 - Food safety management systems Harare, 
Zimbabwe 1-3 June 
2011 60 0 Zimbabwe 
National seminar on 
ISO 22000 - Food safety management systems Belgrade, 
Serbia October 
2012 (tbc) 40 0 Serbia 
National seminar on 
ISO 22000 - Food 
safety management 
systems Karthoum, 
Sudan November 
2012 (tbc) 40 0 Sudan 
  G/SPS/GEN/1166 
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  Objective 2: Build capacity of ISO members and stakeholders involved in developing the 
standardization infrastructure and participat ing in international standardization work 
 
Title Venue/Host Dates Total 
participantsSponsored 
participants Beneficiary countries 
Regional 
workshop on 
fisheries safety, quality, productivity and 
sustainability Bali, Indonesia 13-16 
September 
2011 46 37 Brunei Darussalam 
(self-sponsored), 
Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Dem. P. Rep of Korea, Lao People’s Democratic 
Rep., Malaysia, 
Mongolia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore (self-sponsored), 
Thailand, and Viet 
Nam 
Regional 
workshop 
Standards contribution to the food sector in Africa – 
ISO/TC 34- 
Food products Nairobi, Kenya 24-25 
April 
2012 120 48 Argentina, Benin, 
Botswana, Burkina 
Faso, Burundi, Lesotho, Cameroon, Central African Rep., Colombia, Congo, the 
Rep. of, Côte d’Ivoire, 
Cuba, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, 
Malawi, Mauritania, 
Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, 
Seychelles, Sierra 
Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and 
Zimbabwe 
 
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