SPS-RELATED PRIVATE STANDARDS

COMMUNICATION FROM BELIZE

The following communication, received on 11 April 2014, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of Belize.

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1.  Belize would like to inform the Committee that the competent authority for agricultural health and food safety in Belize, the Belize Agricultural Health Authority, held meetings with a major papaya and major citrus exporter whose products are being affected by private standards.

2.  The meeting with the papaya exporter was held on 6 February 2014, and on 20 March 2014 a session was held with a representative of the citrus exporter. During the course of the meetings, it became very clear that those exporters knew that the standards applied to their products were beyond the official standards and those of the international standard setting bodies recognized by the SPS Agreement. Importantly, they cited specific requirements which were not guarding against any actual risk of transmission of pests or diseases but which could best be described as measures to prevent "theoretical risk of transmission". To quote one company: "the prescribed requirement did not even take into account the basic principle of common sense". The other company is currently waiting for a response from a potential buyer on a particular requirement which the Belizean company has justified as being unnecessary, as they are of the view that the requirements are not supported by a valid risk assessment. This is their first attempt at challenging the validity of a requirement, and it is uncertain as to what the outcome will be.