. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/843 
21 May 2008 
 
 (08-2369) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   Spanish 
  
 
PRIVATE STANDARDS 
 
Statement by Uruguay at the Meeting of 2-3 April 2008
 
  
 The following communication, received on 15 May 2008, is being circulated at the request of 
the delegation of Uruguay
. 
 
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1. Uruguay firmly believes that the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures should 
tackle the problem of "private standards" and th eir impact on international trade as a top priority. 
2. Uruguay is an agricultural country and a net exporter of agricultural products, and its 
economy is essentially based on the production and e xport of those products.  Its economic growth 
and national development, and hence the welfare of its  people, are largely fuelled by the increase in its 
agricultural exports. 
3. Our export sectors have been successful in ga ining access to the demanding import markets of 
many developed countries.  This has been made pos sible over the years by the tireless and persistent 
joint efforts of the competent national authorities and the private actors concerned.  But since the 
requirements of importers and the sanitary and phytos anitary situations in the different countries tend 
to evolve extremely rapidly, remaining in the market s is a full-time job for exporters.  And so far, we 
are referring only to official sanitary and phytosanitary import requirements. 
4. However, the situation has become even more complex with the appearance in recent years of 
so-called "private standards", which impose additional requirements.  So that in practice, to enter an 
importing country where there are companies that impose private standards,  many export products 
have to meet both official and private requirements.  Otherwise, there simply is no trade. 
5. Private standards usually consist of sanitary a nd phytosanitary requirements, and they always 
go beyond the official regulations of the impor ting country, sometimes intr oducing new or additional 
requirements.  This means higher production, processing and marketing costs, and hence, inevitably, 
barriers to trade.  Above all, there are the high private certification costs involved in having to comply with private standards. 
6. But for us, private standards pose another probl em that is every bit as important.  Because 
these requirements are so stringent and costly, th ey threaten the access of our small farmers to 
potential markets.  Eighty per cent of farmers in Uruguay are family farmers.  The Government is 
making enormous efforts to assist in their training and development so that ultimately, they too can 
benefit from the international market.  However, this will be very difficult to achieve if the 
introduction of private standards makes internationa l market requirements unreasonable.  Moreover, 
private standards act as a factor exogenous to the market, causing an imbalance which favours economies of scale and displacing family farming. G/SPS/GEN/843 
Page 2  
 
  7. The Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures should take whatever steps are 
necessary to avoid the application and proliferation of  private standards which, as stated by the OIE in 
its document, could "undermine the hard won im provements in market access arrangements that 
followed the establishment of the SPS Agreement" at the end of the Uruguay Round. 
8. Uruguay fully agrees with the Members that pointed out that private standards failed to 
comply with the required demonstration of scientif ic justification and with the sound principles of 
transparency, and that they circumvented th e useful and necessary process of harmonization of 
standards, so that their consistency with the principles and disciplines of the SPS Agreement is 
questionable. 
9. Uruguay is firmly in favour of a constructive discussion of this issue in the WTO, and feels 
that it should be approached from a broad and pragma tic standpoint in order to ensure that private 
standards do not constitute unjustified restric tions to international trade, undermining the 
harmonization work of the three sisters and the work of the SPS Committee. 
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