. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/121/Add.5 
2 February 2010 
 (10-0535) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures  
  
 
APPLICANTS FOR OBSERVER STATUS 
 
Note by the Secretariat
1 
 
Addendum  
 
 1. An application for observer status in th e SPS Committee was received on 22 November 2009 
from the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-S AD).  Information provided by the CEN-SAD is 
summarized below. 
1. Membership (28) 
Benin   Egypt   Liberia  Sao Tome and Principe 
Burkina Faso  Eritrea   Libya  Senegal Central African Republic Gamb ia   Mali  Sierra Leone 
Chad   Ghana   Mauritania Somalia Comoros   Guinea   Morocco Sudan 
Côte d'Ivoire   Guinea-Bissau  Niger  Togo 
Djibouti   Kenya   Nigeria  Tunisia 
 
2. Mandate, scope and area of work 
2. The Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN -SAD) was established on 4 February 1998 in 
Tripoli, Libya.  The CEN-SAD became a Regional Economic Community during the 36
th Ordinary 
Session of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity, held in Lome, Togo, from 4 to 12 July 2000. 
3. The CEN-SAD has partnership agreements with many regional and international 
organizations with the aim of promoting common and shared action in political, cultural, economic and social fields.  One of its objectives is the rem oval of all restrictions to the integration of its 
member States through the adoption of measures to ensure: 
• Free trade and movement of goods, commodities and services from member States; 
• free movement of persons, capital and inte rests of nationals of members States; 
• right of establishment, ownership and exercise of economic activity. 
                                                     
 
1 This document has been prepared under the Secret ariat's own responsibility and is without prejudice 
to the positions of Members or to their rights or obligations under the WTO. G/SPS/GEN/121/Add.5 
Page 2  
 
  4. The CEN-SAD became an obser ver in the United Nations General Assembly in 2000 
(Resolution A/RES/56/92).  It does not have observer status in any WTO body or in the CODEX, OIE 
or IPPC. 
3. Contribution to the work of the SPS Committee 
5. In order to address the challenges of rural de velopment, food security, and integration in 
terms of trade in agricultural products, in June 2007 the Community adopted a rural development and 
natural resource management strategy built on four cornerstones:  (i) support for the development of 
sustainable, diversified and regionally integrat ed agriculture;  (ii) promotion of integrated 
management of water resources;  (iii) consolid ation of desertification control actions;  and 
(iv) establishment of a partnership and financing platform. 
6. As regards the first cornerstone relating to food security and the alleviation of poverty, actions 
directed at building knowledge and fostering invest ment in agriculture have been identified and are 
currently being implemented.  These include: 
• The Regional Food Security Programme, involving 12 member States, which aims to 
increase food security among vulnerable popula tions and build up the capacity of the 
States concerned to effectively implement and promote sanitary and phytosanitary 
standards in order to protect human health  and facilitate trade in food products; 
• the Regional Programme for the control of  transboundary animal diseases in the 
CEN-SAD area, which seeks to reduce the th reats posed by the principal diseases, in 
order to improve livestock productivity, the saf ety of food products of animal origin 
and access for this subsector to intra- and extra-CEN-SAD and international agricultural markets; 
• capacity building for member States to ensure  effective participation in the promotion 
of sanitary and phytosanitary standards, whic h is being provided in collaboration with 
the Commission of the African Union (thr ough the Interafrican Bureau for Animal 
Resources and the Phytosanitary Council). 
4. Reciprocity 
7. The WTO Secretariat has not requested observe r status in the CEN-SAD.  The CEN-SAD 
General Secretariat is willing to provide the WTO with all records of relevant meetings and other 
SPS-related documents, upon request.  
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