WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/N/SGP/37 
21 April 2009 
 (09-1877) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
 
 
 
NOTIFICATION  
 
1. Notifying Member:  SINGAPORE  
If applicable, name of local government involved:    
2. Agency responsible:  Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) 
3. Products covered (provide tariff item number(s) as specified in national schedules 
deposited with the WTO; ICS numbers should be provided in addition, where applicable):  Cats and dogs (as personal pets  or commercial consignments) 
4. Regions or countries likely to be affected, to the extent relevant or practicable: 
[ X ] All trading partners, or [   ] Specific regions or countries:    
5. Title of the notified document:  Revision of the Veterinary Conditions for the Importation 
of Dogs/Cats  Language:  English  Number of pages:   7 
http://members.wto.org/crnattach ments/2009/sps/SGP/09_1464_00_e.pdf  
6. Description of content:  The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) has 
conducted a risk assessment on rabies risks base d on individual country's rabies situation 
and developments in the control of rabies.   All countries would be re-categorized 
accordingly with varied quarantine requirements. 
Currently, only dogs and cats from four count ries, namely Australia, New Zealand, the 
United Kingdom and Ireland, are exempted from the AVA's quarantine requirements.  
Dogs and cats from all other countries are re quired to be vaccinated against rabies upon 
arrival in Singapore and subjected to 30 days quarantine. 
In the revised import conditions for dogs and cats, instead of the current two categories, 
there are now four categories: 
(i) Category A (countries traditionally free from rabies);  
(ii) Category B (countries with negligible risk of rabies); 
(iii) Category C (countries with controlled risk, or with low incidence of rabies);  and  
(iv) Category D (other countries). 
There will be no quarantine requirements fo r countries listed in Categories A and B, 
although countries listed in Category B countries will need to fulfill pre-export residency, 
and rabies vaccination and testing requirements.  For countries in Category C, three options 
are available and the quarantine period will either  be reduced to 10 days, or remain at 30 
days, depending on the option chosen.  For c ountries listed in Category D, the quarantine 
period remains at 30 days and the dog/cat will be vaccinated against rabies upon arrival in 
Singapore. G/SPS/N/SGP/37 
Page 2  
 
   The AVA's re-categorization of the rabies-stat us of countries and consequent changes to 
quarantine requirements are implemented to fac ilitate the movement of pets belonging to 
travellers and persons reloca ting to Singapore, and facilitate the clearance of commercial 
imports of dogs and cats. 
The AVA would like to invite all interested pa rties to submit their applications to AVA for 
assessment and categorization/re-categorization into the new categories.  The assessment 
would take into account the prevalence and in cidence of rabies in animals and humans in 
the country in the past five years, the veterina ry infrastructure of the country and its animal 
health regulations with respect to rabies, e.g. contingency plans, control programmes, 
import policy, etc. 
Some countries/regions have already been cat egorized, based on their submissions to the 
risk assessment questionnaire earlier (please refe r to the notified document).  Countries 
which do not submit a request for risk assessme nt and categorization will automatically be 
placed under Category D.  
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. Is there a relevant international stan dard?  If so, identify the standard:  
[   ] Codex Alimentarius Commission (e.g.  title or serial number of Codex standard 
or related text)    
[ X ] World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) (e.g. Terrestrial or Aquatic 
Animal Health Code, chapter number)     
[   ] International Plant Protection Convention (e.g.  ISPM N°)     
[   ] None 
Does this proposed regulation conform to the relevant international standard?   
 [ X ] Yes   [   ] No 
 If no, describe, whenever possible, how and why it deviates from the 
international standard:  The revised Veterinary Conditions for the Importation of 
Dogs/Cats are adapted from OIE standards a nd further enhanced through science-based 
risk assessment to achieve risk mitigation in the local context. 
9. Other relevant documents and language (s) in which these are available:  None   
10. Proposed date of adoption (dd/mm/yy) :  1 July 2009 
Propose date of publication ( dd/mm/yy) :  1 July 2009 
11. Proposed date of entry into force:  [   ] Six months from date of publication , and/or  
(dd/mm/yy) :  1 January 2010 
[ X ] Trade facilitating measure  G/SPS/N/SGP/37 
 Page 3 
 
 
  12. Final date for comments: [ X ] Sixty days  from the date of circulation of the 
notification and/or ( dd/mm/yy ):  20 June 2009 
Agency or authority designated to handle comments:  [   ] National Notification 
Authority, [ X ] National Enquiry Point.  Address, fax number and E-mail address (if available) of other body:    
Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore 
(Attn:  Low Xin Yi) 5 Maxwell Road, #18-00 Tower Block, MND Complex Singapore 069110 
Republic of Singapore 
Tel:  +(65) 6325 7675 Fax:  +(65) 6220 6068 E-mail:  low_xin_yi@ava.gov.sg Website:  http://www.ava.gov.sg
 
13. Texts available from:  [   ] National Notification Authority, [ X ] National Enquiry 
Point.  Address, fax number and E-mail address (if available) of other body: