WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/659 
27 March 2006 
 
 (06-1379) 
Committee on Sanitary and 
Phytosanitary Measures Original:   French 
 
 
 
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE AGREEMENT ON THE APPLICATION OF 
SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES 
 
Information for the Workshop of 31 March 2006  
 
Communication from Congo 
 
 
The following communication, received on 23 March 2006, is being circulated at the request 
of the delegation of Congo. 
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 1. At Marrakesh (Morocco) on 5 April 1994, C ongo signed the Agreement Establishing the 
World Trade Organization (WTO), which comp letes the General Agreement on Tariffs and 
Trade (GATT) of 1947. 
2. On 27 February 1997, the National Assembly  ratified that Agreement and Congo became a 
Member with the rights and obligations that membership confers. 
3. Congo thus acceded to all WTO Agreements, including the SPS Agreement, under which 
Members are entitled to protect human, animal or plant life or health. 
4. Domestic measures taken in the course of implementing the WTO SPS Agreement must be 
based on scientific principles and may not be main tained without adequate scientific evidence. 
5. The provisions of the Agreement should fu rther the use of harmonized sanitary and 
phytosanitary measures between Members on the b asis of international standards, guidelines and 
recommendations. 
6. At the same time, the SPS Agreement allows that developing country Members may 
encounter specific difficulties in complying with SPS measures and hence in gaining market access.  
It likewise acknowledges that developing Member s may face certain problems in devising and 
applying SPS measures in their own countries. 
7. This workshop on implementation of the SPS Ag reement therefore affords a good opportunity 
for Congo to acquire further knowledge that may fa cilitate the task of harm onising its national policy 
on SPS measures with multilatera l regulatory provisions. 
8. The information I have the privilege and respons ibility of sharing with you will highlight the 
problems Congo has met in giving effect to the SPS Agreement. G/SPS/GEN/659 
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  9. I shall address them under six main headings: 
(a) The object of the SPS Agreement; 
(b) the objectives of the SPS Agreement; 
(c) the importance of sanitary and phytosanitary measures in trade; 
(d) domestic regulation pertaining to sanitary and phytosanitary measures in the Republic 
of the Congo; 
(e) specific problems in implementing the SPS Agreement in Congo; 
(f) proposals for effective implementation of the SPS Agreement in Congo. 
 
I. OBJECT OF THE SPS AGREEMENT 
10. The WTO SPS Agreement ordinarily applies to all sanitary and phytosanitary measures that 
may affect international trade directly or indir ectly.  The primary object of the Agreement is the 
protection of human, animal or plant life or health. 
II. OBJECTIVES OF THE SPS AGREEMENT 
11. The objectives of the SPS Agreement include: 
- Improving human and animal health and the phytosanitary situation; 
- establishing a multilateral framework of rules and disciplines to guide the 
development, adoption and application of  SPS measures in order to reduce their 
adverse effects on trade. 
III IMPORTANCE OF SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES IN TRADE 
12. Sanitary and phytosanitary measures that are ta ken in accordance with the provisions of the 
SPS Agreement further trade among Members and so  contribute to boosting international trade. 
13. The SPS Agreement recommends that Members de vise their trade polici es on the basis of 
international standards, guidelines and recommendati ons developed by the competent international 
organizations.  These include the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the World Organization for Animal Health and relevant inte rnational and regional organizations  operating within the framework 
of the International Plant Protection Convention. 
14. Thus, any Member failing to meet the requireme nts arising from the international standards, 
guidelines and recommendations developed by these organizations may have great difficulty in 
placing its products on the world market.  Like  Congo, most developing country Members find 
themselves in this category, however unwillingly. 
15. For their part, the countries of the North have mastered technology, manufacture goods and 
products on the basis of international standards, a nd have highly efficient means of quality control.  
They are thus able to place their goods and products on the world market with ease.  G/SPS/GEN/659 
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  IV. DOMESTIC REGULATION PERTAINING TO SPS MEASURES:  THE CASE OF 
THE REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO 
16. Regulation of the protection of human, animal or  plant life or health in Congo is covered by 
the following legislation: 
- Law No. 7/94 due 1 June 1994 regulating the import, export and re-export 
regime.  Article 22 (6) of the Law prohibits the importation of polluting or 
radioactive toxic wastes and any like products. 
- Decree No. 99-168 of 23 August 1999 accrediting BIVAC International and 
the Bureau Veritas Group as authorized  agents for inspection of goods 
shipped to and exported from Congo. 
This decree includes a list of goods and products  that are exempt from inspection.  These are 
products that may enter the national territory  freely and are destined for consumption. 
- Law No. 52/1256 of 26 November 1952 on the protection of plants. 
This text dates back to 1952 and has become obsolete, being irrelevant to the current 
international regulatory environmen t.  The Republic of the Congo is nevertheless a signatory to the 
International Plant Protection Conventions, which it jo ined in 2004, and a member of the international 
phytosanitary council. 
17. In addition, with a view to compliance with international provisions, particularly the WTO 
SPS Agreement, an updated Bill on plant protection and phytosanitary control is currently before the 
Congolese Parliament for adoption. 
- Decree No. 2003-159 of 4 August 2003 defining the organization and 
functions of the "Centre for Standa rdization and Quality Management" 
project. 
According to Articles 3 and 17 of this Decree, the main functions of the project are: 
• Developing and adopting standards; 
 
• certifying the conformity of standards; 
 
• quality control; 
 
• approval of the national mark. 
 
The Centre is still at the project phase because th e national standardization system is not as 
yet in operation. 
- Order No. 4646/BE. 47-14 of 16 December 1968 regulating the importation 
of live animals to Congo. 
The Order focuses on banning the importation of animals suffering from rinderpest and 
pleuropneumonia, in the interests of consumer protec tion.  Sanitary measures at the time provided for 
vaccination sessions to inoculate animals against thes e diseases.  All the provisions of the Order were 
valid in their time but have ceased to be effective with the emergence of diseases such as BSE, Dioxin 
and Avian Influenza. G/SPS/GEN/659 
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  18. In order to protect consumers against these di seases, the Government of the Republic of the 
Congo has taken specific measures: 
- An interministerial committee was set up to monitor the effects of dioxin on 
poultry products imported in 1999; 
- Regulations have been issued to ban the importation of the offending 
products and their transit in the nationa l territory (cf. official documents). 
19. As regards the provisions of the SPS Agreemen t, it should be noted that Congo has recently 
started to update its national policy on sanitary and phytosanitary measures with a view to alignment 
with other Members. 
20. Furthermore, Congo has developed a draft public  hygiene code that reflects international 
sanitary regulations.  The draft, which fills a void,  is currently before Parliament for enactment. 
V. SPECIFIC PROBLEMS IN IMPLEMENTI NG THE SPS AGREEMENT IN CONGO 
21. The following paragraphs explain why Congo  has difficulties in implementing some 
provisions of the WTO SPS Agreement. 
22. Article 2.2 of the SPS Agreement requires Members to ensure before applying any sanitary or 
phytosanitary measure that it is  based on scientific principles. 
23. Because it lacks efficient and suitable structures for the verification of standards and quality, 
Congo is unable to take any domestic measure, based on scientific evidence, to prohibit the entry of 
goods or products declared unfit for consumption.   Consequently, any sanitary or phytosanitary 
measures taken by Congo runs a considerable risk of being arbitrary. 
24. As for Article 3.4, which deals with harmoni zation of sanitary and phytosanitary measures 
between Members, since most developing countries lack structures for the verification of standards 
and quality, it would appear difficult if not impossible for them to take part in the work of the international organizations res ponsible for defining standards and taking decisions on a scientific 
basis. 
25. The lack of efficient structures for standard  and quality control in developing countries, 
including Congo, explains why these countries ar e unable to challenge the conformity with 
international standards of products declared to be  of sound quality by countries of the North, which 
are better equipped in this area.  This demonstrat es clearly enough that the question of harmonizing 
sanitary and phytosanitary measures between Members is likely to put a brake on the development of 
the external trade of developing countries, which ha ve hitherto had serious problems in placing their 
products on the international market. 
26. Since most Congolese resources destined for export do not fulfil the standardization criteria 
demanded at international level, Congo will me et with difficulties in implementing its export 
diversification policy because access to markets in the countries of the North for products "made in 
Congo" will be virtually impossible. 
27. This being so, effective participation by Co ngo in the multilateral trading system would 
appear to be complex.  G/SPS/GEN/659 
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  VI. PROPOSALS FOR EFFECTIVE IMPLEM ENTATION OF THE SPS AGREEMENT 
IN CONGO 
28. The following are proposals for securing effec tive implementation of the SPS Agreement in 
Congo: 
- Reinforcement of State policy on the development of trade and the 
improvement of national exports (cf. revision of Law 7/94:  harmonization 
with the WTO); 
- State encouragement of private initiatives based on investment and 
technology transfer linked to standard and quality control.  The State should promote any action by the private sector that envisages the establishment of 
efficient technical and scientific laboratories specializing in standard and 
quality control for goods and products destined for consumption; 
- encouragement by the WTO and UNCTAD of the relocation of technical and 
scientific laboratories of developed c ountry Members so as to prevent any 
hindrance to international trade caused by  certain sanitary and phytosanitary 
measures that are adopted arbitrarily and without adequate scientific 
evidence, to the detriment of developing countries which have difficulty in placing their products on the international market; 
- a more thorough review at WTO level of the operating mechanisms of the 
global market in order to facilitate te chnology transfer allowing developing 
country Members to: 
• Develop their national resources; 
 
• improve the level of their trade with the countries of the North; 
 
• carry out their own assessment of th e conformity with international 
sanitary and phytosanitary sta ndards of imports in general; 
 
• take SPS measures on a scientific basis; 
 
• participate in the work to harm onize standards carried out by the 
relevant international organiza tions (Codex Alimentarius, World 
Organization for Animal Health … ); 
 
• develop standardization and certification activities. 
 29. The Republic of Congo is now at the phase of fra ming its standardization policy.  However, 
technical assistance from the WTO could be requested in order to secure better harmonization of 
SPS measures with other Members. 
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