WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/CZE/121 
7 August 2007 
 (07-3343) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6. 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   CZECH REPUBLIC
 
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):         
2. Agency responsible:   Ministry of Agriculture 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web-site 
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be  indicated if different from above:         
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [  X ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:         
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in  addition, where applicable):   ):  
(a) Feedingstuffs, additives and premixtures (maximum levels of organochlorine 
compounds)  
(b) Complementary feedingstuffs (maximum levels for certain hazardous 
supplementary substances) 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   Draft decree 
amending Decree No 451/2000 Coll. implementing the Act on Animal Feed, in the wording of Act No 91/1996 Coll. on animal feed as amended by Act No 244/2000 Coll.(as amended). (5 pages, in Czech). 
6. Description of content: 
The draft contains: ad a) Transposition of Directive 2006/77/EC of  29 September 2006 am ending Annex I to 
 Directive 2002/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards  maximum levels for organochlorine com pounds in animal feed into the Decree 
 implementing the Act on Animal Feeds.  
ad b) Specific provisions regarding the maximu m permissible levels of certain hazardous 
 additives (specifically coccidiostats a nd histomonostats and certain nutritional 
 additives, i.e. vitamin A , vitamin D2, vitamin D3 and trace elements: copper,  selenium and zinc) in complementary feedingstuffs in accordance with  SANCO/3549/2005 Rev.2. G/TBT/N/CZE/121 
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  7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where applicable:   
ad a)  Transposition of Directive (EC) 2006/77/EC into national legislation. 
ad b)  Existing European legislation regarding th e hygiene of animal feed (Regulation No 
183/2005 Article 5(1)(c) and Article 5(2 )) places different demands on operations 
depending on the kind of feed (“premixture” or “complementary feed”) used for additional 
processing into complete feed mixtures. If the primary producer (stock breeder) who mixes 
the feed himself uses a “premixture”, the operating equipment should meet the demanding requirements laid down by Annex II to Regula tion No 183/2005 (Article 5(2)), including 
HACCP, whereas if the primary producer only uses “complementary feed”, it is sufficient 
for the operating equipment to meet the less demanding requirements laid down by Annex I 
– Primary Production (Article 5(1)(c)). Existi ng definitions of a “premixture” (Regulation 
No 1831/2003, Article 2(2)(e)) and of “co mplementary feedingstuffs” (Directive 
79/373/EEC, Article 2(e)), however, are not  accurate enough and allow for different 
interpretations. As a consequence, products  with a concentrated level of hazardous 
additives, which actually should be labelled and marketed as “premixtures”, are supplied as 
“complementary feedingstuffs”. This is a way for the primary producers who mix the final 
feed themselves to circumvent the stringent  demands placed on premixtures by Regulation 
No 183/2005. From a legal point of view, it is difficult to take countermeasures against such 
practices.  
The provisions proposed for inclusion in the D ecree should help redu ce the risk of cross-
contamination of animal produc ts (eggs, milk, meat) particularly in the area of primary 
production (at the stock breeders) when simple mixing equipment is used, such as mobile mixing equipment, for which the first produ cers are not required to introduce HACCP. 
Contamination occurs if feed with high levels of hazardous additives fails to be mixed to a 
sufficiently high degree of homogeneity.  In order to prevent situations where highly 
concentrated mixtures of hazardous additives are supplied, especially to primary production 
areas, the Czech Republic wishes,  via the Decree, to lay down binding rules governing the 
limits for permissible levels of hazardous add itives in complementary feedingstuffs. To this 
end, the Czech Republic uses the proposal su bmitted to the European Commission in late 
2005 and subsequently discussed as a worki ng document labelled S ANCO/3549/2005 Rev. 
2 (“concentration factors”).  A system setting maximum levels for certain hazardous 
additives in complementary feedingstuffs exis ted within the former Directive 70/524/EEC 
(Article 12) on additives for feedingstuffs.  This Directive, however, has lapsed. 
Adoption of the Czech Republic’s proposed appr oach to setting a maximum level for certain 
additives in complementary feedingstuffs  based on SANCO/3549/2005 Rev. 2 will 
contribute to the enhanced safety of foodstuffs  as required by Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 
of the European Parliament and of the C ouncil, because the share of primary producers’ 
own production of compound feedingstuffs  in the total production of compound 
feedingstuffs is at a level of 25% to 30% in the Czech Republic.  The risk of contamination 
of foods of animal origin w ill thereby be reduced as well. 
8. Relevant documents: 
a) Article 3(13) of Act No 91/1996 Coll.  on animal feed, as amended [ad a)] 
Article 3(11) of Act No 91/1996 Coll.  on animal feed, as amended [ad b)] 
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    20 August 2007         
1 September 2007  G/TBT/N/CZE/121 
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  10. Final date for comments:   15 August 2007 
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [  X ] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:   
http://www.unmz.cz/, wto.tbt@unmz.cz