. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/W/234 
19 February 2009 
 (09-0878) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
THIRD REVIEW OF THE WTO/SPS AGREEMENT 
 
Proposal by China
 
 
 
 The following communication, received on 9 February 2009, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of China
. 
 
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I. BACKGROUND 
1. Article 8 and Annex C of the WTO/SPS Agreemen t (hereinafter referred as "the Agreement") 
prescribe Members' rights and obligations in terms of control, inspection a nd approval procedures.  
These provisions are important components of th e Agreement and can contribute greatly, when 
effectively implemented, to the fulfillment of  the legitimate objectives of the Agreement. 
2. A large percentage of specific trade concer ns raised by WTO Members in the Committee 
meetings as well as in bilateral ne gotiations are related to control, inspection and approval procedures.  
For example, some Members have  complained about the requirements of annual pre-inspection 
carried out on production sites when these were mainta ined for years in succession.  As the cost of the 
pre-inspection was totally borne by exporters, su ch requirements brought burdensome costs to the 
exporters and lowered the competitiveness of their pr oducts, despite the convincing fact that decades 
of successful international trade had demonstrated th at the production sites an d related products fully 
met the SPS requirements of the importing Members. 
3. In another instance, some Members have app lied more stringent inspections to all food 
products of a certain kind just based on a single case of unconformity of pesticide residue limits, 
without taking into account that those products orig inated from different manufactures.  As a result, 
the custom clearance of qualified products are unj ustifiable delayed and th eir marketing and quality 
are seriously affected, especially for fresh or perishable foods. 
II. OBSERVATIONS 
4. Although cases such as those described above take  place from time to time, it is interesting 
that Article 8 and Annex C are seldom used by Me mbers to justify their positions in raising specific 
trade concerns both multilaterally and bilaterally, comp ared to Articles 2, 5 or other provisions that 
are more frequently referred to.  China thinks that the main reason for this is that the Agreement is 
derived from the Tokyo Round TBT Agreement.  Ther efore, Article 8 and parts of Annex C are not 
directly pertinent to the characteristics of SPS measures and are not specific enough to provide 
adequate guidance for implementation by Members. G/SPS/W/234 
Page 2  
 
  5. Some clauses in Annex C are ambiguous and further discussions and clarifications are 
needed.  Article 1(e), as an example, provides that  "... any requirements for control, inspection and 
approval of individual specimens of a product are limited to what is reasonable and necessary ."  
What are the criteria of " reasonable and necessary "?  Another example is  Article 3 of Annex C 
which prescribes that "Nothing in this Agreem ent shall prevent Members from carrying out 
reasonable inspection  within their own territories."  China finds that interpretation of the term 
"reasonable " varies. 
III. PROPOSALS 
6. Based on the above observations, China would like to propose the following: 
(a) The SPS Committee should initiate discussions to identify typical steps of control, 
inspection and approval procedures in relati on to sanitary and phytosanitary measures, 
as well as application recommendations and good practice therein to provide guidance 
for implementation. 
(b) Such terms as "reasonable and necessary" in Article 1(e) and "reasonable inspection" 
in Article 3 of Annex C of the Agreem ent should be discussed in the SPS Committee 
so that necessary explanations and clarifi cation can be made to facilitate their 
implementation. 
(c) The SPS Committee should draw the attention of OIE, IPPC and CODEX of the 
discussion and consult with them regarding th e development of relevant international 
standards pertaining to control, inspection and approval procedures, such as sampling, 
on-site inspection, determination of soil fr eedom, etc., to further the implementation of 
Article 8 of the SPS Agreement. 
(d) Members should be encouraged to shar e their experiences and difficulties with 
implementing Article 8 of the SPS Agreement. 
 
 
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