. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/EEC/255 
18 March 2009  
 (09-1355) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:  EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
  
If applicable, name of local governme nt involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  European Commission 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above :   
European Commission 
EC-TBT Enquiry Point Fax:   +(32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail:   ec-tbt@ec.europa.eu
 
Website:  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/   
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [ X ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:   
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):   
Fertilisers (HS: 31)  
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   
Draft Commission Regulation am ending Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003 of the European 
Parliament and of the Council relating to fertil isers for the purposes of adapting Annexes I, 
III, IV and V thereto to technical progress (13 pages, in English)  
6. Description of content:   
The draft Commission Regulation aims at:  
-  Allowing the use of magnesium sulpha te in combination with micronutrients 
fertilisers and th e addition of magnesium sulphate or magnesium oxide to ground 
phosphate rock. A corresponding set of rules are described in a new section of Annex 
I of the notified draft. 
-  Clarifying the current wording of Annex III for the control of ammonium nitrate 
fertilisers of high nitrogen content. 
-  Introducing a set of EN Standards that will either replace the existing analytical 
methods of Annex IV or introduce new ones. 
-  Extending the deadline for approved  laboratories to get accredited. G/TBT/N/EEC/255 
Page 2  
 
  7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where applicable:   
- Manufacturers will benefit from direct access to the internal market and farmers will take 
advantage of a wider range of fertiliser types.  
- Access to EN Standards will be easier and a si gnificant reduction of the number of pages of 
the Community legislation on fertilisers is foreseen. 
- The efficient control actions on EC  fertilisers will be reinforced. 
8. Relevant documents:    
Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council relating to 
fertilisers, OJEU L304, 21.11.2003, pp. 1 – 194. 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/Le xUriServ/LexUriServ.do?ur i=OJ:L:2003:304:0001:0194:EN:PDF   
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:      August 2009 
  September 2009 
10. Final date for comments:  60 days from date of notification 
11. Text available from: National enquiry point [  ], or addre ss, telephone and fax numbers, 
e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:    
European Commission 
EC-TBT Enquiry Point 
Fax:   + (32) 2 299 80 43 
E-mail:   ec-tbt@ec.europa.eu  
The text is available on the EC-TBT Website:  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/   
and can be downloaded here.