. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/N/CAN/357 
28 November 2008  
 (08-5834) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:  CANADA
  
If applicable, name of local government involved:     
2. Agency responsible:  Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) 
3. Products covered (provide tariff item numb er(s) as specified in national schedules 
deposited with the WTO; ICS numbers should be provided in addition, where 
applicable):  Highly processed products of animal orig in (e.g. gelatine) (ICS Codes 65.020, 
67.040) 
4. Regions or countries likely to be affected, to the extent relevant or practicable :  All 
non-negligible risk for BSE countries 
5. Title, language and number of pages of the notified document:  Import Directive for 
Highly Processed Products (available in English and French, 10 pages) 
6. Description of content:  The changes to the Highly Processed Products Directive were put in 
place to reflect Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada legisla tive and policy 
requirements for removal of Spec ified Risk Material (SRM) from all cattle at slaughter.  SRM 
refers to any of the skull, brain, trigeminal ga nglia, eyes, tonsils, spinal cord and dorsal root 
ganglia of cattle aged 30 months or older; and the distal ileum of cattle of all ages.  All 
removed SRM are to be diverted away from th e products for human consumption and animal 
food supply.  The requirement to remove all SRM from cattle does not apply to products 
originating from a country that is design ated as having negligible risk of BSE.  
The changes are also made in light of the recognition of the Bovine Spongiform 
Encephalopathy (BSE) status of OIE members, where a number of countries have recently 
been reclassified from negligible to controll ed risk for BSE in accordance with the updated 
Terrestrial Animal Health Code (27 May 2008) of the OIE. 
7. Objective and rationale:  [   ] food safety, [ X ] animal health,  [   ] plant protection, 
[ X ] protect humans from animal/plant pest or disease,  [   ] protect territory from other damage from pests    
8. International standard, guideline or recommendation:  
[   ] Codex Alimentarius Commission, [ X ] World Organization for Animal Health 
(OIE), [   ] International Plant Protection Convention, [   ] None  
If an international standard, guideline or recommendation exists, give the appropriate 
reference and briefly identify deviations:  OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code 
(http://www.oie.int/eng/norme s/mcode/en_s ommaire.htm ) G/SPS/N/CAN/357 
Page 2  
 
  9. Relevant documents and language(s) in which these are available:   Recognition of the 
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Status of Me mbers, Terrestrial Animal Health Code of 
the OIE (27 May 2008) (available in English, French and Spanish)  
http://www.oie.int/eng/info/en_statesb.htm?e1d6
 
10. Proposed date of adoption:  12 February 2009 
11. Proposed date of entry into force:  12 February 2009 
12. Final date for comments:  27 January 2009 
Agency or authority designated to handle comments:  [   ] National notification 
authority, [ X ] National enquiry point, or  address, fax number and E-mail address (if 
available) of other body: 
13. Texts available from:  [   ] National notifica tion authority, [ X ] National enquiry point, 
or address, fax number and E-mail address (if available) of other body: 
The electronic version of the Import  Directive can be downloaded at:  
http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2008/sps/CAN/08_3817_00_e.pdf  (English) 
http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2008/sps/CAN/08_3817_00_f.pdf  (French)