WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/121/Add.6 
22 February 2010 
 (10-0940) 
Committee in Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures  
  
 
APPLICANTS FOR OBSERVER STATUS 
 
Note by the Secretariat
1 
 
Addendum  
 
 1. An application for observer status in the SPS Committee was received on 21 December 2009 
from the Southern African Development Community  (SADC).  Information provided by SADC is 
summarized below. 
1. Membership (15) 
Angola     Malawi    South Africa 
Botswana    Mauritius   Swaziland Democratic Republic of Congo  Mozambique   Tanzania L e s o t h o      N a m i b i a    Z a m b i a  Madagascar    Seychelles   Zimbabwe 
 
2. Mandate, scope and area of work 
2. SADC was established as a development commun ity with legal character on 17 August 1992, 
in Windhoek, Namibia, through a declaration and treaty signed at a summit of heads of state and government.  However, SADC was preceded by th e Southern African Development Coordination 
Conference (SADCC), formed in Lusaka, Zambia, on 1 April 1980.  This alliance of nine states in 
Southern Africa had the aim of coordinating deve lopment projects in order to lessen economic 
dependence on South Africa. 
3. The objectives of SADC included: 
• Achieving development and ec onomic growth and alleviatin g poverty;  enhancing the 
standard and quality of life of the people of Southern Africa;  
• Promoting self-sustaining development on the basis of collective self-reliance, and the 
interdependence of member states;  
• Achieving complementarity between national and regional strategies and programmes;  
• Promoting and maximizing productive employment and utilisation of resources of the region;  
• And achieving sustainable utilisation of natura l resources and effective protection of the 
environment.  
                                                     
 
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.6 
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  The ultimate objective of SADC, the Community is to  build a region in which there will be a high 
degree of harmonization and rationalization to enab le the pooling of resources to achieve collective 
self-reliance in order to improve the living standards of the people of the region. 
4. SADC has observer status in Codex, the Inte rnational Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) and 
the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE ), as well as in the WTO Committee on Trade and 
Development 
3. Contribution to the work of the SPS Committee 
5. In its effort to facilitate intra-regional comme rce through the removal of non-tariff barriers to 
trade, and also to facilitate the protection of c onsumers through developmen t of standards for goods 
and services, the SADC Secretariat has put in place regional programmes on sanitary and 
phytosanitary measures (SPS) and on technical barrier s to trade (TBT).  In 2008, SADC Ministers of 
Trade and Industry approved two annexes to the SADC  Protocol of Trade, namely the SPS Annex and 
the TBT Annex, which outline modalities of regi onal cooperation in SPS and TBT matters within 
SADC. 
6. At the African region WTO Workshop on TBT held in Mauritius in May 2009, and that on 
SPS held in Kenya in July 2009, it  became apparent that African c ountries, in particular Sub-Saharan 
African countries, do not effectively participate in  SPS and TBT Committee meetings and those of the 
international standard setting orga nizations (ISSOs) closely linked to the two committees.  Following 
these meetings, SADC decided to join both WTO co mmittees and work with its member states to 
voice issues of common regional concern. 
7. SADC has several activities that relate to SPS matters in the region including: 
• A SADC Seed Certification and Quality assura nce system designed to ensure that seed 
varieties listed in the SADC Regional Variet y Catalogue and traded among SADC member 
states are of consistently high and known quality,  and that movement of seed is efficient and 
less costly. 
• The SADC Quarantine and Phytosanitary Measur es for seed, whose purpose is to reduce costs 
related to seed trade, and encourage faster and safer movement of seed.  This objective is to be achieved by (1) establishment of transp arent and science-based common standards and 
procedures for seed movement and (2) the introduction of rationalized SADC pests lists for 
the movement of seed between member states , and from outside countries into the SADC 
region.  To support this initiative, SADC, with the assistance of its cooperating partners, is 
developing a "Field Handbook on Pests and Diseases of Phytosanitary Importance in the SADC region" which will be distributed to SPS officers at border posts in the near future. 
• Programmes have been put in place to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease (FMD), 
including the control of movement of livestoc k and continuous surv eillance in zones free 
from FMD without vaccination. 
• The SADC Secretariat is currently implemen ting an EU funded project on Food Safety – 
Capacity Building in Residue Control (FSCBRC), budgeted at Euro 7.5 million.  The purpose of the project is to harmonize food safety control regulations, guidelines and procedures 
through institutional strengthening in the S ADC region in conformity with international 
requirements, in order to increase exports  whilst complying with consumer safety 
requirements.  The project endeavours to achieve  five outputs:  (1) strengthening of national 
food safety regulatory frameworks;  (2) strengthe ned registration and quality control of crop 
protection products and veterinary drugs at national and SADC regional level;  (3) food  G/SPS/GEN/121/Add.6 
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  laboratories assisted to develop quality mana gement systems up to accreditation level;  (4) 
enhanced coordination and communication betw een national and regional authorities involved 
in SPS;  and (5) creation of public awareness on SPS issues and establishment of a regional 
SPS specialists database. 
4. Reciprocity  
8. The WTO Secretariat has not requested observer status in SADC. 
9. As a regional political entity, the SADC cannot put certain high level documents of a 
sensitive nature in the public domain, but will read ily share information concerning all technical and 
SPS related matters with the WTO SPS Committee Secr etariat and other stakeholders upon request. 
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