. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/N/EEC/333 
12 August 2008  
 (08-3836) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd 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 Co mmunities.  Health & Consumers 
Directorate-General, Directorate E – Safety of the food chain 
3. Products covered (provide tariff item numb er(s) as specified in national schedules 
deposited with the WTO; ICS numbers should be provided in addition, where 
applicable):  Sunflower oil for human and animal consumption, falling within CN code 1512 
11 91 or 1512 19 90 10, originating in or consigned from Ukraine 
4. Regions or countries likely to be affected, to the extent relevant or practicable :  
Member States of the European Communities  (EC), Ukraine and other third countries 
exporting these products concerned, or iginating in Ukraine, to the EC 
5. Title, language and number of pages of the notified document:  Commission Decision of 
10  June 2008 imposing special conditions governin g the import of sunflower oil originating 
in or consigned from Ukraine due to contamination risks by mineral oil (available in all 
Community languages, 2 pages) 
http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2008/sps/EEC/08_2387_00_e.pdf  
http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2008/sps/EEC/08_2387_00_f.pdf  
http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2008/sps/EEC/08_2387_00_s.pdf  
6. Description of content:   
It concerns a safeguard measure.  The Decision imposes special conditions to the import of sunflower oil originating in or 
consigned from Ukraine due to cont amination risks by mineral oil. 
Each consignment of sunflower oil intended fo r human or animal consumption originating in 
or consigned from Ukraine has to be accompanied by a valid certificate, certifying the absence of unacceptable levels of  mineral oil and the results of sampling and analysis for the 
presence of mineral oil.  
A certificate shall only be valid  for import into the EU if the sampling and analysis of the 
consignment and the issuance of the certificate have taken place after the European Commission has assessed a nd formally accepted the control and certification system put in 
place by the Ukrainian authorities. 
The European Commission has formally accepted the control and certification system on 
3 July 2008 and Ukrainian authorities have been informed thereof.  G/SPS/N/EEC/333 
Page 2  
 
   In addition, all consignments of sunflower oil originating in or consigned from Ukraine will 
be sampled and analysed by the competent authorit ies at import in the EU to ensure that the 
consignments contain a level of mineral oil confor m to what is declared in the certificate. The 
costs of these controls have to be borne by the food business operator.  
7. Objective and rationale:  [ X ] food safety, [   ] animal health,  [   ] plant protection, [  
 ] protect humans from animal/plant pest or disease,  [   ] protect territory from other damage from pests    
8. International standard, guideline or recommendation:  
[   ] Codex Alimentarius Commission, [   ] World Organization for Animal Health 
(OIE), [   ] International Plant Protection Convention, [ X ] None  
If an international standard, guideline or recommendation exists, give the appropriate 
reference and briefly identify deviations:    
9. Relevant documents and langu age(s) in which these are available:    
Commission Decision of 10 June 2008 imposing special conditions governing the import of 
sunflower oil originating in or consigned from Ukraine due to contamination risks by mineral 
oil. 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=OJ :L:2008:151:0055:0056:EN:PDF  
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:151:0055:0056:FR:PDF  
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:151:0055:0056:ES:PDF  
Other languages are in addition available by replacing "EN" in the abovementioned URL by 
the two letter code for the following languages:   
BG (Bulgarian), CS (Czech), DA (Danish), DE  (German), ET (Estonian), EL (Greek), IT 
(Italian), LV (Latvian), LT (Lithuanian), HU (Hungarian), MT (Maltese), NL (Dutch), PL 
(Polish), PT (Portuguese), RO (R omanian), SK (Slovakian), SL (S lovenian), FI (Finnish), SV 
(Swedish) 
Furthermore discussions have taken place with the Member States to agree on the sampling 
and method of analysis for the control of the presence of mineral oil in sunflower oil.  
Furthermore information is available on the r ecommended EU-measures for products on the 
market and on acceptable levels of  mineral oil in sunflower oil.  
This information is publicly avai lable and can be downloaded from: 
http://ec.europa.eu/food/co mmittees/regulatory/scfcah/toxic/summary20062008_en.pdf  
10. Proposed date of adoption:  10 June 2008 
11. Proposed date of entry into force:  10 June 2008 
12. Final date for comments:  Not applicable 
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 notifica tion authority, [ X ] National enquiry point, 
or address, fax number and E-mail address (if available) of other body: 
E-mail:  sps@ec.europa.eu