. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/W/221 
26 March 2008 
 
 (08-1334) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   Spanish 
  
 
CHILE'S POSITION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 
PRINCIPLE OF TRANSPARENCY IN 2008 
 
Communication from Chile
 
 
 
 The following communication, received on the 20 March 2008, is being circulated at the 
request of the delegation of Chile . 
 
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 1. In relation to its size and trade volume, Chile has stood out for the number of notifications it 
has issued under the Agreement on the Application of  Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.  Indeed, 
it is among the five to ten countries which have su bmitted the most notifications over the past few 
years. 
2. While we consider transparency to be one of the principles which has seen the greatest 
progress in terms of implementation by Members, we agree that there is a need for improvement in certain areas and that not all countries have been implementing it at the same rate. 
3. Regarding the note produced by the Secretariat (G/SPS/W/215/Rev.1) following the revision 
of the Agreement and the meetings held by the Committee on the subject, we support the document in 
general, particularly in the areas identified below. 
4. Chile supports the notification of all import me asures which may have an impact on trade, 
regardless of whether they differ from the internat ional standards.  However, the process by which 
Members submit information regarding deviation from the international standard must be improved to 
ensure greater clarity where necessary. 
5. If it is decided that all measures should be notified, whether or not they comply with 
international standards, not only should there be  a separate item in the form indicating that the 
measure is in keeping with the international standa rd, but it is also important that the measure should 
be exempted from the 60-day comment period and allowed to come into force immediately. 
6. Producing all notifications and forwarding them to secretariats of the scientific reference 
organizations will make it possible to ensure m onitoring, thereby introducing something which does 
not currently exist in such organizations.  It would also help the Committee to comply with Article 12 
of the Agreement as regards the monitoring of international standards. 
7. Chile firmly supports the creation of a WTO web site for notification purposes, as this would 
be a major step towards facilitating the implementati on of the transparency principle.  However, the 
participation of the Members concerned is very important. 
8. We also agree with the idea of having unofficial translations of the measures. G/SPS/W/221 
Page 2  
 
  9. We share the concern regarding compliance with the period for comments and that this period 
should begin with the circulation of the notificati on by the WTO Secretariat.  Just as there is an 
exception for emergency measures and measures which f acilitate trade, if there were agreement that 
all measures should be notified, measures which conf orm to international standards would also be 
exempted from the time period. 
10. For emergency measures, there should be a pro cedure for monitoring the period of validity. 
Although according to the form such measures are meant to be temporar y, this process is often used 
for the notification of measures which end up becoming permanent. 
11. While we agree with idea of attaching the regul ations to the notifications in order to make 
them available to all Members, there should be some kind of information mechanism regarding the 
Members who obtain the regulations in question. 
12. We agree with the amendments and additions to  the text on the notification of recognition of 
equivalence. 
13. We agree that all matters concerning transparen cy and notifications should be united in one 
document, and it might be useful to consider adding,  in the future, all that concerns notifications 
relating to special and differential treatment, currently in document G/SPS/33, and any agreed 
notifications concerning the application of any of the other principles, for example regionalization. 
 
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