. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/589 
11 July 2005 
 (05-3063) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
RELEVANT WORK OF THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS  
ORGANIZATION (ISO) 
 
Statement by the representative of ISO at the meeting of 29-30 June 2005
1 
 
 
 The following communication, dated 30 June 200 5, is circulated at the request of the 
representative of ISO.  
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 1. ISO is a non-governmental organization consisting of the national standards institutes of 153 
countries.  ISO has published more than 15 000 In ternational Standards and is working on subjects 
ranging from nuts and bolts to environmental ma nagement, from food products and agricultural 
machinery to water treatment services and social responsibility.  ISO currently has 734 technical 
committees and sub-committees managing some 2,200 working groups.  Every day, between 10 and 
15 ISO standards development meetings are being held around the world. 
2. ISO has specific status with many UN agencies, including the WHO and FAO, and is an 
observer to the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex).  It is also an observer at the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE), the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) 
and of course the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosan itary Measures (SPS).  In the area of technical 
assistance, ISO cooperates regularly with WTO and ITC, and has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with UNIDO. 
3. Of special note, ISO has a long-standing and productive cooperation with the Codex 
Alimentarius Commission with more than 300 ISO St andards having been adopted by Codex in such 
areas as food products, water quality, ch emistry and conformity assessment. 
4. Of particular interest to WTO Members is a new international standard under preparation 
entitled ISO 22000, Food safety management systems - Requirements for organizations in the food 
chain.  The standard's requirement s are applicable to operators along the whole food chain wishing to 
design and implement an effective food safety manage ment system.  The standard has been aligned 
with ISO 9001:2000 and incorporates the principles of  the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point 
(HACCP) system and application steps developed by Codex. 
5. The new ISO international standard is partly a response to the diversity of national standards 
that have been developed as well as several retaile r organizations having prepared such documents for 
the establishment and auditing of food safety syst ems, sometimes including HACCP requirements.  
ISO 22000 should become an internationally accepted standard on a management system to address 
food safety requirements and may thus help to  clarify and harmonize the present situation. 
                                                     
 
 1 Kevin McKinley, Deputy Secretary-General 
 G/SPS/GEN/589 
Page 2  
 
 6. Another document, ISO/TS 22004, will give guidance on the application of ISO 22000 that 
could assist and provide guidance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as developing countries.  It is hoped that this will be published at the same time as ISO 22000 in the last 
quarter of 2005. 
7. Another project I wish to bring to the attention of WTO Members is work on a new 
international standard entitled ISO 22005, Tracea bility in the feed and food chain -- General 
principles and guidance for system design and de velopment.  This will soon be at the Draft 
International Standard (DIS) stage and is intended to provide recommendations for the 
implementation of a traceability system both within and among organizations in the food chain. 
8. Other projects of worthy of note include: 
• Methods of analysis for the detection of genetically modified organisms and derived 
products; 
• Good processing practices for the irradiation of  foods intended for human consumption, 
and 
• numerous other methods of analysis that s upport and complement the work of Codex. 
 9. A final mention of ISO work relevant to WT O Members are the International Standards and 
Guides relevant to conformity assess ment.  In this area, ISO provides generic internationally-agreed 
procedures that are used as the basis for such activities as testing, inspection, certification, 
accreditation and even suppliers' declaration of conformity. 
10. I wish to thank the Chair and WTO Members for this opportunity to have provided a brief 
overview of ISO's activities and we look forward to  providing a more detailed information paper at 
the next meeting of the SPS Committee. 
 
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