. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/N/EEC/252 
22 December 2004 
 (04-5638) 
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
 
  
NOTIFICATION  
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
 
If applicable, name of local government involved: 
2. Agency responsible:   Commission of the European Communities, Health & Consumer 
Protection Directorate-General Directorate E – Food Safety: Plant Health, Animal Health 
and Welfare, International questions 
3. Products covered (provide tariff item number(s) as specified in national schedules 
deposited with the WTO; ICS numbers should be provided in addition, where 
applicable):  Cereals (CN 1001, 1002, 1003, 1004, 1005, 1006, 1007, 1008), foodstuffs of 
animal origin (CN 0201, 0202, 0203, 0204, 0205, 0206, 0207, 0208, 0210) and certain 
products of plant origin, including fruit and vegetables 
4. Regions or countries likely to be affected, to the extent relevant or practicable:  
Member States of the European Communities (EC) and third countries exporting the products concerned to the European Communities.  
5. Title, language and number of pages of the notified document:   Draft Commission 
Directive amending the Annexes to Council Directives 86/362/EEC, 86/363/EEC and 90/642/EEC as regards maximum residue levels for amitraz (SANCO/10539/2004 Rev.1, 
13 pages including annexes) 
6. Description of content:  This draft Directive sets maxi mum residue levels (MRLs) for 
amitraz, which has recently been excluded in Annex I to Directive 91/414, that means that 
plant protection products containing this active substance shall no longer be authorised for 
use in the Community except for a limited number of uses (i.e.: cotton seeds). 
Consequently, all of the MRLs are set to the li mit of detection (LOD) except for the cotton 
seed MRL which has a period of grace until July 2007 at the latest. 
7. Objective and rationale:  [ X ] food safety, [   ] animal health, [ X ] plant protection, 
[   ] protect humans from animal/plant pest or disease,  [   ]  protect territory from other 
damage from pests 
8. International standard, guideline or recommendation:  
[ X ] Codex Alimentarius Commission, [   ] World Organization for Animal Health 
(OIE), [   ] International Plant Protection Convention, [   ] None  
If an international standard, guideline or recommendation exists, give the appropriate 
reference and briefly identify deviations:   Codex maximum residue limits for some 
commodities exist for this active substance.  Those relevant were taken into account. G/SPS/N/EEC/252 
Page 2  
 
 9. Relevant documents and language(s) in which these are available:   
European Commission document: (SANCO/10539/2004 Rev.1).  When adopted it will be 
published at the Official Journal available at: 
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/oj/index.htm
l   
10. Proposed date of adoption:   Around the end of April 2005 
11. Proposed date of entry into force:   Twenty days after the publication in the Official Journal 
of the European Union.  
Note :  The provisions in the Directive shall be applicable 6 months after its publication in the 
Official Journal of the European Union 
12. Final date for comments:  Sixty (60) days after the date of notification 
Agency or authority designated to handle comments:  [ X ] National notification 
authority, [   ] National enquiry point, or address, fax number and E-mail address (if 
available) of other body:    
13. Texts available from:  [   ] National notification authority, [ X ] National enquiry point, 
or address, fax number and E-mail address (if available) of other body: