WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/SPS/W/262 
6 October 2011 
 (11-4838) 
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
TRANSITIONAL REVIEW MECHANISM PURSUANT TO PARAGRAPH 18  
OF THE PROTOCOL ON THE ACCESSION OF THE  
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ("CHINA") 
 
Questions from the European Union to China  
concerning Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures 
 
 
 The following communication, received on 4 October 2011, is being circulated at the request 
of the Delegation of the European Union. 
 
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I. GENERAL COMMENT 
1. This is the last transitional review of the effo rts of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter 
referred to as "China") to implement the commitmen ts it has made in its Protocol of Accession to the 
WTO in the SPS Committee.  The transitional review  has proved to be an important and useful 
mechanism, which has served both the interests of China and the interests of other WTO Members to 
allow Members to convey to China their views, expect ations and concerns regarding China's efforts to 
comply with its WTO SPS obligations.  The Europe an Union would like to take this opportunity to 
give its comments and questions in the last review of this kind to China concerning China's Sanitary 
and Phytosanitary Measures. 
2. The European Union notes with satisfaction the increased communicati on between China and 
the European Union on SPS issues.  The European Un ion believes that our bila teral consultations are 
essential to build mutual trust and the better understanding indispensable to forging strong 
relationships. 
3. The European Union acknowledges that, with the increase in trade this work is growing and 
encourages China to continue to dedicate even mo re resources to these tasks consistent with the 
responsibilities that have followed from membership  of the WTO/SPS Agreement and the incredible 
amount of work which China has put in place during th e last years to revise its food safety standards, 
which also affects trade. 
4. As a general remark, the European Union would need to point out that China has not fulfilled 
its obligation as regards transparency  towards trading partners while developing its legislation in the 
area of food safety, animal and plant health.  The access to legislation and procedures remains limited, 
as well as possibilities to comment on the draft legi slation, as China has not made laws and other 
measures affecting trade available in one or more  WTO languages, despite its commitment in China's 
Working Party Report (paragraph 334).  
5. Given the draft legislation and SPS notifications coming from China in huge volumes (as an 
example almost 100 notifications in one month) duri ng the last two years, it  has been, in practice, 
impossible to follow and give comments on all new legislation affecting trade, especially as G/SPS/W/262 
Page 2  
 
  translations have not been available into a WTO la nguage.  It is not always clear if the comments 
given by trading partners have been taken in to account before finalising the legislation and 
regulations. 
6. The European Union would like to recall that  China should allow a reasonable interval 
between the publication of a sanitary and phytosanitary regulation and its entry into force in order to 
allow time for other trading partners to adapt to the Chinese requirements and to follow the 
transparency requirements as laid down in the WT O SPS Agreement in Article 7 and in Annex B. 
 Question:  Could China elaborate how it w ill in the future follow the transparency 
requirements as laid down in the SPS Agreement in this respect? 
 
II. EU SPECIFIC CONCERNS ON THE APPLICATION OF THE SPS AGREEMENT  
7. The European Union also notes that China has not yet aligned its legislation to several 
international standards.  Alternatively, a scientif ic justification should be  submitted to support the 
sanitary and phytosanitary measures applied, as d escribed in Article 2.2 of the SPS Agreement. 
8. Among the specific areas of this kind are in particular the following. 
A. FOOD ADDITIVES AND PROCESSING AIDS  
9. The Chinese list of authorized food additives and processing aids differs significantly from 
the list of substances used worldwide and consider ed safe by international standard-setting bodies, 
which creates unnecessary trade barriers. 
10. The European Union asks China to further collaborate in a transparent manner when 
developing and implementing new standards and to  continue the cooperation with other trading 
partners in this respect. 
 Question:  When will China align its legisla tion and regulations, or alternatively submit a 
scientific justification in cases where China a pplies a lower limit than the international 
standard-setting body or in cases where China has not authorized a substance allowed by 
other trading partners and considered safe  by international standard setting bodies? 
 
B. BEEF (BSE) 
11. The European Union would like to remind Chin a that the World Organisation for Animal 
Health (OIE) issued a list of bovine products which can be safely traded  regardless of the BSE status 
of the exporting country.  Among these products is  de-boned skeletal muscle meat from cattle.  
Moreover EU member States have been classified by the OIE either as "controlled risk" or "negligible 
risk" countries.  Despite these OIE guidelines and cl assification, EU beef and other bovine products 
are still banned. 
12. The European Union has comprehensive measur es in place aimed at assuring the highest level 
of consumer protection.  Among these are a strict feed ban, strict controls on Specified Risk Materials 
and active surveillance.  Although the European Unio n offers the highest health guarantees to its trade 
partners, China has not allowed the trade of these products.  
13. Therefore the European Union would like to re quest China to open its market to EU exports 
of these products;  or alternatively to justify, by sci entific reasons, the restrictions on the products that 
under the OIE list can be safely traded, as well as fo r all the other products originating from EU 
member States.  G/SPS/W/262 
 Page 3 
 
 
   
 Question:  When will China allow the imports  of beef and other products from EU member 
States, in line with the OIE, or alternatively ju stify, by scientific reasons, the restrictions on 
the products that under the OIE list can be safely traded? 
 
C. H1N1 
14. The European Union followed closely the de velopments of the pandemic influenza virus 
H1N1 and considered it important that government s responded appropriately and proportionately to 
the risks imposed. 
15. The European Union notes that China conti nues imposing additional trade requirements on 
live pigs from EU member States.  These requirement s take the form of requirements of disease-free 
areas from where live pigs are expor ted to China.  The European Union considers these measures 
unnecessary and unjustified and not in line with the statements made by the main relevant 
international organizations such as OIE, WHO and FAO.  There is no scientific justification for 
imposing such requirements, especially as WHO has declared the pandemic over. 
 Question:  When will China revise its import rul es for live pigs in this respect, to align its 
requirements with the international standard-setting bodies? 
 
D. OTHER CONCERNS / UNDUE DELAYS  
16. The European Union also wish to express concer ns on several other matters on principles and 
approaches to facilitate trade which ha ve been raised in our bilateral contacts.  We firmly believe that 
countries should work closely together and build work ing relations that facilitate trade flows through 
appropriate mechanisms.  The slow progress of nego tiations of SPS protocols and the slow progress 
for inspections seriously limit market access of EU  products to China, especially for meat, and for 
fruit and vegetables.  
17. The audit and inspection approach by China, which does not follow the Codex Alimentarius 
standard on inspections/audits, results in unjustified delays and thus is not in line with the principles 
of the WTO SPS Agreement, especially as set out in Annex C. 
18. The European Union wishes to see progress on these issues.  The European Union is ready to 
further discuss bilaterally at technical level to find a solution to accelerate these negotiations in order 
to avoid undue procedural delays. 
 Could China elaborate on how it intends to a void undue procedural delays for approval 
processes as mentioned in Annex C of the SPS Agreement and when it will start applying 
inspections following the Codex Alimenta rius standard on inspections/audits? 
 
 
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