WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/SPS/GEN/1154 
28 March 2012 
 (12-1651) 
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
STANDARDS HARMONIZATIO N AND SPS CONFORMITY  
UNDER THE TRADE RELATED TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROJECT 2 (TRTA 2) 
 
A Joint Project of the Philippi nes and the European Union 
 
 
 The following communication, received on 27 March 2012, is circulated at the request of the 
Delegations of the Philippin es and the European Union. 
 
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Overview 
 
 The TRTA 2 is a development cooperation initia tive by and between the Philippines and the 
Commission of the European Union. 
 
 The European Union is an important tradi ng partner of the Philippines and TRTA2 is 
providing the necessary tool to realize market access opportunities by addressing SPS and 
food safety requirements. 
 
 The specific purpose "is to enhance the capacity of selected Philippine Government agencies 
and state actors" for deeper integration into the international trading system.  
 
 It has four components:  
1. Capacity building for trade policy and expor t development – to support development 
and implementation of a coherent and eff ective international trade strategy; and 
implementation of international commitmen ts including those to be made in the 
framework of the on-going EU-ASEAN FTA negotiations; 
2. Standards harmonization and SPS conform ity – to facilitate adoption of, and 
compliance with, international standards and regulations for selected product and 
service exports; 
3. Trade facilitation – to enhance competitive, transparent, and efficient movement of 
traded products within the international and regional trade facilitation systems;  
4. Rapid response facility – to enable rapid, efficient and effective response to 
unforeseen problems and issues in trade relate d areas through provi sion of short-term 
technical assistance. 
 
 The project has an operational implementation pe riod of four years – from 23 August 2008 to 
22 August 2012 - and an estimated cost of EUR 7,475,000, of which EUR 6,500,000 and 
EUR 975,000 are to be contributed by the Eur opean Union and the Philippines, respectively. G/SPS/GEN/1154 
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1. The Philippines will report on the SPS sub-co mponent of the project under the Standards 
Harmonization and SPS Conformity Component.  Th e project is now in its last year of 
implementation and will te rminate on August 2012. 
2. The SPS sub-component is directly implemented by the Philippine Department of Agriculture 
(DA) together with its relevant agencies unde r the guidance and assistance of EU SPS experts. 
3. The SPS sub-component has seven (7) key activities: 
(a) Review all SPS related regulations and r ecommend strategies for their harmonization, 
streamlining, and consolidation; 
(b) Implement a SPS management and cont rol system for fishery products; 
(c) Develop and implement an ISO 17020 system for fish inspection; 
(d) Harmonize and strengthen the farm-to-fork  inspection and enforcement service for 
poultry and poultry products; 
(e) Strengthen the capacities to identify and sel ect appropriate traceability systems for 
fishery and poultry products, mangoes and bananas; 
(f) Develop and train a central ISO17025 traini ng / technical support entity to benefit DA 
laboratories; 
(g) Formulate and implement a programme of support to the Micro-, Small-, and 
Medium-Scale Enterprises (MSMEs), to enable them to meet SPS and other 
requirements of international markets. 
4. The DA envisions that at the end of this four-year project, the participating agencies will have 
further upgraded their capabilities on SPS management and control systems that are aligned with 
international standards and requirements.  
5. In general, the TRTA 2 should help pave the way for sustaining and increasing market shares 
of current exports and opening more trade opportunities for our other exportable agricultural and 
fisheries products, and therefore contribute to the poverty reduction goals of the project.  The project 
gave particular attention to our MSMEs in the agricu ltural and fisheries sector to help them meet SPS 
and other requirements of the international market.  
6. Some Key Outputs/Results of the Project and Further Action Points 
 Draft legislation has been filed at our Congress to strengthen the food safety regulatory 
system of the Philippines by putting in place a coordinated food safety system for local 
consumption and international trade to protect c onsumer health and facilitate market access of 
foods (Status: Positively supported by stakeholde rs and the draft is currently being further 
improved.); 
 Successful passing of the EU Food and Veterinary Office Audit Mission by the Bureau of 
Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) due to enhanced internal coordination/streamlining 
of work; clear guidelines on interpretation of inspection procedures/sampling practices for official control, etc.; 
 Introduction to traceability concepts and options fo r application in fisheries, poultry, bananas 
and mangoes, which will form the basis for future  work in this area.  This is importantly 
related and supportive of current efforts at de veloping the Philippine Rapid Alert System for 
Food and Feed (Phil-RASFF), a web-based networ k on rapid alert system for the notification  G/SPS/GEN/1154 
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  of direct or indirect risks to human health, as well as risks to plant and animal life and health 
deriving from food or feed; 
 Indexing of SPS-related issuances to facilitate the collection and systematic arrangement of 
the issuances in a coherent and logical manner as  well as to provide a tool for policy review 
and formulation in order to reduce confusion, overlaps and inconsistencies.  The output will 
also be useful to the private sector stake holders as the SPS measures/regulations may be 
accessed electronically, thereby facilitating tr ade through improved information availability 
and transparency of SPS-related regulations and measures which the industry needs to know 
and with which it must comply; 
 Support to getting ISO 17020 (inspection polici es and procedures) and ISO 17025 (testing 
and calibration services of DA laboratories); 
 Development of food safety and quality syst em (for high value coconut products) and 
HACCP for feed business operators. 
 
7. The Philippine Department of Agriculture l ooks forward to TRTA 3 and continuing the 
efforts to strengthen SPS management and control systems. 
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