WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/SPS/GEN/1088 
17 June 2011 
 (11-2999) 
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Original:   Spanish 
  
 
ACTIONS AIMED AT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WTO AGREEMENT 
ON SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES 
 
Information Submitted by the Inter-American Institute 
for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) 
   The following communication, received on 14 June 2011, is being circulated at the request of 
the IICA. 
 
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 1. The observer organizations to the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) 
of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are invited to submit reports on the activities they have carried out to promote understandi ng and implementation of the SPS Agreement.  The IICA wishes to 
present some of the actions or activities it consid ers relevant to the work of this Committee. 
1. Support for participation in Codex Alimentarius meetings 
2. Using resources from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the IICA is 
implementing a project to support participation by  IICA member countries in Codex Alimentarius 
meetings. 
3. The purpose of the project is to support activ e participation and st rengthen common regional 
interests.  Support is therefore given to initiatives that can be managed for that purpose by the Codex Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean (CCLAC). 
4. The fourth phase of the project is currently being implemented as follows:  Fresh fruit and 
vegetables;  food import and export inspection and certif ication;  and foods for special dietary uses.  
The end of the fourth phase in 2011 will see the culmination of three years of support for country 
participation in different Codex Committees. 
5. In addition to facilitating participation in th e work of the committees, the project uses the 
IICA handbooks on good practices for participation and also provides for biannual courses on the 
Codex regulatory process.  As from this year, th e handbook on management of Codex committees and 
subcommittees for institution building will also be ava ilable to countries.  This will serve to combine 
active participation with capacity building. 
6. It is hoped that more resources will be made ava ilable for continuation of the project, in order 
to promote capacity building as well as active participation.  For further information, please contact:  Ricardo Molins (Ricardo.Molins@iica.in t), Eric Bolaños (Erick.Bolanos@iica.int). G/SPS/GEN/1088 
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  2. Support for the National Codex Committee in Uruguay 
7. With a view to supporting the repositioning of Uruguay's National Codex Committee as a 
provider of training and vehicle for channelling info rmation on the national position, as well as that of 
the Technical Subcommittees as na tional experts in the operation, procedures and standards of the 
Codex Alimentarius, work proceeded between N ovember 2010 and April 2011 on the framing of a 
multimedia communication plan (comprising an  external communication and an internal 
communication plan) and a training plan. 
8. The aim of these plans is to lay the foundations  and serve as guides for further work in the 
inter-institutional sphere, covering a broad range of internal and external communication activities;  
those already implemented include: 
 Awareness workshop:  " La importancia de Comunicar lo que hacemos " 
(The importance of communicating what we do), 15 November 2010; 
 Internal communication workshop:  " La Comunicación pide la palabra " 
(Communication requests the floor), 15 March 2011; 
 Course No. I:  " Gestión del Codex Alimentarius en Uruguay " (Managing the Codex 
Alimentarius in Uruguay), 17-18 March 2011; 
 Course No. II:  " Gestión del Codex Alimentarius en Uruguay " (Managing the Codex 
Alimentarius in Uruguay), 22-23 March 2011; 
 Multi-topic workshop:  " La labor de Uruguay en el Codex Alimentarius " (Uruguay's 
work within the Codex Alimentarius ) (external communication workshop), 
29 March 2011; 
 Regional electronic forum:  " El Codex Alimentarius en el MERCOSUR Ampliado " 
(The Codex Alimentarius in the enlarg ed MERCOSUR), 31 March to 15 April 2011. 
For further information, please contact:  Alej andra Bentancur (alejandra.bentacur@iica.int). 
3. Support for Costa Rica's management of th e Codex Committee for Latin America and 
the Caribbean 
9. Under the General Technical C ooperation Agreement between the Ministry of the Economy, 
Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, the Ministry of Health and the IICA, the latter provided support in developing the pr ofile of a project entitled "Strengthening of 
Costa Rica's National Codex Committee and Focal Point to fulfil the role of coordinator of the Codex 
Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean (CCLAC)". 
10. The purpose of this project is to promote capacity building within the National Codex 
Committee and to support it in its future task as CCLA C coordinator.  For further information, please 
contact:  Eric Bolaños (Erick.Bolanos@iica.in t) or Sacha Trelles (Sacha.Trelles@iica.int). 
4. Study on the impact of private standards 
11. The study on the impact of private standards on the production and marketing of bovine meat 
in the Southern region of the Americas was comple ted in a joint effort involving the IICA, the 
Permanent Veterinary Committee of the Southern Cone (CVP) and the Agricultural Insertion Program 
(made up of the INAI Foundation - International Agricultural Negotiations Institute, the Dairy  G/SPS/GEN/1088 
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  Industry Centre (SIL), the Argentine Rural Societ y (SRA), the Argentine Rural Confederations, the 
Argentine Agrarian Federation, the Inter-Ameri can Development Bank (IDB) and the Multilateral 
Investment Fund (MIF)). 
12. The objectives of this study were:  (i) To cond uct in-depth qualitative research in order to 
identify the costs incurred by producers and exporti ng enterprises in the bovine meat sector in 
Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay and Chile in  implementing and demonstrating compliance with 
the private standards required by the retail chains an d other food industries;  and (ii) to determine the 
role of governments regarding private standa rds and the legitimacy of such standards. 
13. The study can be downloaded from:  http://www.infoagro.net/salud ;  
http://www.insercionagricola.org.ar/ ;  http://www.iica.org.uy/  and http://www.cvpconosur.org/ .  
For further information, please contact:  Lour des Fonalleras (Lourdes.Fonalleras@iica.int). 
5. Drawing up a profile for a Food Inspectors School 
14. The IICA is currently preparing a project profile for a Regional Food Inspectors School for 
Central America.  The project is based on two key pill ars:  (i) in terms of safety, the aim is to adopt 
risk- and process-based inspection in place of sanita ry inspection;  and (ii) from a commercial and 
regulatory standpoint, the project seeks to contribute to the opening and preservation of export 
markets and to reduce the "sanitary" gap between inte rnal and external markets, as well as to expand 
the intra-regional market by introducing economic  and customs integration schemes providing for 
harmonization of both regulations and protocol s such as that governing the inspection process. 
15. The advisory consortium of universities and othe r institutions that is to provide support in 
preparing the project document and assist with the s ubsequent running of the school has already been 
set up and presented to the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF).  The consortium 
comprises the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Unite d States), the Polytechnic University of Valencia 
(Spain), the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the University of Costa Rica and the 
Santa Fe Food Safety Agency (Argentina).  For further information, please contact:  Ricardo Molins 
(Ricardo.Molins@iica.int). 
6. PVS implementation in the Dominican Republic 
16. The Agricultural Health and Food Safety Pr ogram implemented the Performance, Vision and 
Strategy (PVS) tools for National Food Safety Serv ices and the Plant Protection Organization in the 
Dominican Republic between 11 and 19 May.  For further information, please contact:  Ana Cordero 
(Ana.Cordero@iica.int). 
7. Courses on animal health risk assessment 
17. The IICA, together with the University of California-Davis, organized a distance-learning 
course on animal health risk assessment for 17 count ries of the Americas and 120 technical personnel.  
The course was held separately for the Southern, An dean and Central regions and took place between 
9 May and 3 June (one week for each region).  Fo r further information, please contact:  Ericka 
Calderon (Ericka.calderon@iica.int). 
Inter American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) 
Agricultural Health and Food Safety 
http://www.infoagro.net/salud  
http://www.iica.int/  
 
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