WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/649 
24 March 2006 
 (06-1354) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
 
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SPS AGREEMENT 
 
Information for the Workshop on 31 March 2006
 
 
Communication from Egypt  
  
 The following communication, received on 23 Marc h 2006, is being circulated at the request 
of the Delegation of Egypt. 
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 1. In preparation for the Workshop on the Implem entation of the SPS Agreement, participants 
were invited to provide information relating to th eir experiences in relation to the issues to be 
discussed.  The following are the responses of Dr. Ali Soliman. 
Question 1
 
  How regularly do representatives of your country participate in meetings of the SPS Committee?  Who usually participates from your  country (Capital-based experts?  Geneva–
based trade representative?  What information do you receive regarding meetings of the SPS 
Committee, and how do you receive this information? 
 
2. Egypt is keen to participate in the regular meetings of the SPS Committee that take place in 
Geneva through the year.  
3. From capital, SPS experts from the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation and 
representatives from the Ministry of Trade and Indus try consistently attend these meetings as well as 
Geneva-based delegations.  In some cases, private sector representatives attend as well. 
4. The Central department of the WTO (CD/WTO)  in the Ministry of Trade and Industry 
receives the information related to meetings of the SPS Committee from the Egyptian Commercial 
office in Geneva and also through the WTO web site .  The CD/WTO then circulates this information 
to the relevant stakeholders.  The information includes meeting agendas, submissions from Members 
and other documents related to the SPS Committee.  
Question 2
 
  Does your country have an SPS national committee?  How do your exporters find out about your trading partners new SPS requirements?   What national mechanism can be created 
to ensure that stakeholders in your country are informed in a timely manner of new SPS 
requirements, so that the SPS requirements of trad ing partners can be evaluated and so that the 
views of relevant stakeholders can be taken into  account when responding to SPS notifications? 
In establishing such mechanism, how can Membe rs identify the relevant domestic stakeholders G/SPS/GEN/649 
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  and promote effective interaction among these st akeholders that can be sustained over time? 
How can information about SPS requirements be transmitted to groups outside of capital ? 
 
5. Egypt established an SPS national Sub-Committee in 2003, under the auspices of the Ministry 
of Trade and Industry, with the participation of other public and private sector representatives who 
have direct or indirect links with SPS issues. 
6. The relevant stakeholders including the private sector in Egypt are being informed of the new 
SPS requirements through two channels, the first one  is the SPS national sub-committee at which the 
new SPS requirements are being discussed and analyzed.  The second channel is the SPS national enquiry point as it takes the responsibility to inform the private sector regularly of the newly adapted 
SPS requirements. 
7. Moreover, each competent authority has established a web site, ( www.tas.gov.eg
, and 
www.epq.gov.eg ) at which it includes its laws, decrees and SPS measures so as to help the private 
sector and other stakeholders to get familiar with the SPS related issues.  
8. In collaboration with relevant stakeholders , a Notification Coordination Mechanism (NCM) 
was established aimed at sharing SPS related informa tion with all relevant parties (public, private 
sector) and to support the national enquiry point in providing stakeholders with all information they 
need in a timely manner.   
Question 3  
  Has there been any national planning on  how to implement the SPS Agreement in your 
country?  If so, was this planning de veloped using a particular methodology? 
 
9. Egypt understands that the most effective wa y to move forward in complying with its 
commitments under the SPS Agreement is for the government and private sectors to share this 
responsibility. 
10. Some of the challenges that Egypt was facing in the SPS field were problems related to 
structural arrangements, coordination between agencies, specific training needs, and lack of IT infrastructure, so the Government of Egypt has put forward some principal tasks to be undertaken to 
overcome such challenges and to better comply with  the obligations under the SPS Agreement at the 
national level. 
Task 1
: 
 
11. Establishing an SPS national sub-committee, where all the competent authorities (private and 
public sector) are involved and where roles for each party were designated so as to share views and 
discuss all SPS related matters and come up with d ecisions that could help make Egypt compliant 
with the SPS Agreement. 
12. Members of the national SPS sub-committee are :  
(a) The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) with its responsibilities relating to foreign 
trade; 
(b) The Egyptian Organization for Standardization and Quality (EOS); 
(c) The Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MoALR), Department of 
External Relations, as the SPS national enquiry point; 
(d) The General Organization for Veterinary Services (GOVS);  G/SPS/GEN/649 
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  (e) Egyptian Central Administration of Plant Quarantine (CAPQ);  
(f) The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP);  
(g) The General Organization for Export and Import Control (GOEIC);  and 
(h) Representatives from the commodity councils reflecting the views and interests of the 
private sector. 
Task 2 :  
 13. Assessment of Egypt’s SPS compliance including : 
(a) An assessment of Egypt’s general compliance with the SPS Agreement; 
(b) An assessment of Egypt’s compliance with  specific aspects of the SPS Agreement, 
such as  
(i) Notification and enquiry point functions; 
(ii) Transparency of SPS measures; 
(iii) Risk analysis; 
(iv) The legal framework in Egypt. 
Task 3
: 
 14. Based on the recommendations resulting from the previous tasks, awareness programs 
including seminars, workshops, and on-the-job traini ng were held for private and public sectors to 
bring Egypt into WTO SPS compliance and to strengthen all the competent authorities' ability to become familiar with and implement the SPS Agreement 
Task 4
: 
 15. It was important to identify specific actions to transform the transparency procedures to 
become more effective and operational for both the public and private sector. 
16. That is why it was important to establish a Notification Coordination Mechanism (NCM) that 
involves all Egyptian competent authorities, and st akeholders, including private sector who have 
direct and indirect relation with the SPS Agreem ent, with the aim of documenting the flow of 
information for incoming and outgoing SPS notifications  and indicate a more structured approach to 
handling notifications and to build a strong comm unication channel with our office in Geneva.  
17. The mechanism also aimed at strengthening the Egyptian enquiry point which is located in 
the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamati on, through facilitating Egypt’s ability to comment 
early on SPS measures proposed by other countri es that may negatively affect Egypt’s exports, 
managing the flow of notifications , deciding quickly whether comment is necessary, and ensuring that 
comments are passed back within the stipulated  timeframe.  The mechanism also allows for 
incorporating the views of the private sector  when responding to the SPS notifications.  G/SPS/GEN/649 
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  Question 4
 
  How does your country identify its techni cal assistance needs?  What has been your 
country’s experience in both the request and the supply of SPS-related technical assistance? 
How can technical assistance supply and demand be  most effectively matched, priority areas 
identified and duplication of donor efforts avoided?   
18. Egypt's technical assistance needs are identified through the SPS national sub-committee, 
where each competent authority specifies its technica l assistance needs.  The sub-committee gathers 
and categorizes those needs based on priorities.  Th en, possible means are i nvestigated on how to 
cover those needs. 
19. An explicit example of how technical assistance helps developing countries to overcome SPS 
related problems is the technical assistance that Eg ypt acquired through the Potato Brown Rot Project 
(PBRP) in the filed of establishing and monitoring pest free areas to meet the related SPS requirements. 
20. The core issue in technical assistance is that  Members should efficiently, effectively, and 
precisely identify at the earliest possible stage th eir technical assistance needs based on a relevant 
needs assessment that covers all the SPS -related stakeholders in that country. 
21. With regard to the provision of technical assistan ce, Egypt is of the view that the provision of 
technical assistance in the SPS filed should be b ased on the real needs of the recipient countries 
(demand driven), and should not be limited to certa in types of technical assistance but vary according 
to the specified needs.  At th is stage we may find some developing countries still need specific 
technical assistance in the fields of risk assessment , risk analysis and risk management, as well as 
effective surveillance and monitoring services. 
22. The provision of technical assistance should also cover areas like establishing accredited 
laboratories to accurately diagnose diseases and pests, identify toxic residues, and verify the quality of 
agricultural chemicals and veterinary products. 
 
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