RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE G/SPS/W/86
9February 1998
ORGANIZATION(98-0462)
Committee onSanitary andPhytosanitary Measures
CLARIFICATION OFREFERENCES TOCODEX TEXTS
Draft Response totheCodex Alimentarius Commission
Note bytheChairman
Atitsmeeting of15-16 October 1998, theCommittee discussed aletter (G/SPS/W/84) sent
totheChairman bytheSecretariat oftheCodex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) concerning arequest
forclarification bytheCommittee on(a)howitwould differentiate standards, guidelines or
recommendations and(b)thestatus itwould assign toCodex regional standards andrelated textsin
relation totheimplementation oftheSPSAgreement. Asagreed, thefollowing draftresponse, based
onthesuggestions made byMembers during informal consultations onthesubject, iscirculated for
consideration bytheCommittee atitsMarch meeting.
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1. Yourletterof29September1997wasdiscussedbytheCommitteeonSanitaryandPhytosanitary
Measures ("the Committee") atitsmeetings ofOctober 1997 andMarch 1998. The Committee
instructed metoforward toyouthefollowing response.
2. Bywayofbackground,itmustbeclearlyunderstoodthattheCommitteecannotformallyinterpret
theprovisions oftheSPSAgreement. Thiscanbedone onlybytheWTO Ministerial Conference
orGeneral Council, orindirectly through thedispute settlement process withregard toparticular cases.
Nonetheless, theCommittee isrequired tocarryoutthefunctions necessary toimplement theAgreement
andthefurtherance ofitsobjectives andthusmayexpress views, where appropriate, onthemeaning
ofparticular terms andprovisions oftheAgreement.
3. With respect toyourfirstquestion on"how theCommittee would differentiate standards,
guidelines orrecommendations inrelation totheimplementation oftheSPSAgreement", Annex A
oftheSPSAgreement defines international standards, guidelines andrecommendations asfollows:
"(a) forfoodsafety, thestandards, guidelines andrecommendations established
bytheCodex Alimentarius Commission relating tofoodadditives, veterinary
drugandpesticide residues, contaminants, methods ofanalysis andsampling,
andcodes andguidelines ofhygienic practice; ..."G/SPS/W/86
Page2
Thisdefinition makes nodistinction between standards, guidelines andrecommendations. TheSPS
Agreement doesnotprovide specific definitions fortheterms "standards", "guidelines" or
"recommendations. Thisisincontrast totheWTO Agreement onTechnical Barriers toTrade, where
"standard" hasbeen explicitly defined1,andwhere there isnoreference to"guidelines" or
"recommendations".
4. Throughout thetextoftheSPSAgreement, theterms "international standards, guidelines or
recommendations" always appear together. Article 3.1oftheSPSAgreement states that"[t]oharmonize
sanitary andphytosanitary measures onaswideabasisaspossible, Members shallbasetheirsanitary
orphytosanitary measures oninternational standards, guidelines orrecommendations ...".Article 3.2
indicates thatsanitary measures which "...conform tointernational standards, guidelines or
recommendations shallbedeemed tobenecessary toprotect human, animal orplant lifeorhealth,
andpresumed tobeconsistent withtherelevant provisions ofthisAgreement ...".Article 3.3provides
that"Members mayintroduce ormaintain sanitary orphytosanitary measures which result inahigher
levelofsanitary orphytosanitary protection thanwould beachieved bymeasures based ontherelevant
international standards, guidelines orrecommendations, ifthere isascientific justification ...". In
nocasedothese provisions differentiate between thethree terms "standards", "guidelines" or
"recommendations".
5. Nonetheless, indiscussions onthismatter [some] Members indicated thathowaCodex text
wasapplied depended onitscontent. [These] Members recognized thataCodex standard, suchas
anMRL, often provides ahigher degree ofprecision thanaguideline orarecommendation, andthus
maygiveaMember lessroom forinterpretation. Thismight havesome bearing onthefacility with
which aMember could show thatitsmeasure "conforms to"aninternational standard, guideline or
recommendation inthecontext ofArticle 3.2oftheSPSAgreement. Similarly, thegreater precision
thatoftencharacterizes astandard might affect whatdeviation fromaninternational standard, guideline
orrecommendationisallowedunderArticle3.3.However,itwasnotedthatCodexstandards,guidelines
orrecommendations arenotmandatory, andthatMembers havethepossibility todeviate fromthem.
[Most] Members wereoftheviewthatCodex workshould notbeconstrained bythisquestion. Members
consider ittobeaninternal decision oftheCodex Alimentarius Commission astothemerits ofhaving
astandard, guideline, orrecommendation toaddress eachspecific foodsafety issue.
6. With respect toyoursecond question on"thestatus theCommittee would assign toCodex
regional standards andrelated texts", initsdiscussions [some] Members noted thatregional standards
arenotincluded inthedefinition ofinternational standards provided byAnnex AoftheSPSAgreement,
1TheTBT Agreement defines a"standard" asa:
"Document approved byarecognized body, thatprovides, forcommon andrepeated use,rules, guidelines or
characteristics forproducts orrelated processes andproduction methods, withwhich compliance isnotmandatory. Itmay
alsoinclude ordealexclusively withterminology, symbols, packaging, marking orlabelling requirements astheyapply to
aproduct, process orproduction method.
Explanatory note
Theterms asdefined inISO/IEC Guide 2cover products, processes andservices. ThisAgreement deals onlywith
technicalregulations,standardsandconfor mityassessment procedur esrelatedtoproductsorprocesses andproduction
methods. Standards asdefined byISO/IEC Guide 2maybemandatory orvoluntary. Forthepurpose ofthis
Agreement standardsaredefinedasvoluntaryandtechnicalregulationsasmandat orydocument s.Standardsprepared
bytheinternational standardization community arebased onconsensus. ThisAgreement covers alsodocuments
thatarenotbased onconsensus."G/SPS/W/86
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citedabove. [These] Members recognized that,eveniftheywerebased onscientific evidence, regional
standards were meant toapply onlywithin aparticular geographic region. Despite theirrelevance
forthatregion, theapplication ofsuchstandards totrade, whether tocountries within oroutside of
theregion, could notbenefit fromanypresumption ofconformity withtheSPSAgreement. However,
Members dorecognize thatsuchscientifically-sound regional standards could become thefoundation
forthecreation andadoption ofinternational standards.
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