SUMMARY OF THE MEETING OF 30 JUNE – 1 JULY
2016
Note by the Secretariat[1]
Corrigendum*
The
following paragraphs should be corrected to read as follows:
4.22. Mexico
reiterated its concern regarding Costa Rica's suspension of the issuing of
phytosanitary certificates for avocado imports originating from Mexico. Mexico
considered the measure to be in violation of fundamental principles of
technical and scientific justification based on international standards,
most-favoured nation, proportionality and transparency principles as enshrined
in the SPS Agreement and the SPS Chapter of the Free Trade Agreement between
Mexico and Latin America. Mexico noted its preference to promote dialogue
between authorities in various consultative formats; however, these efforts had
not been successful as no response had been received from Costa Rican
authorities in regard to the issue. Mexico indicated that its avocado exports
continued to be significantly affected by the restrictions imposed by Costa
Rica and further reiterated its request for Costa Rica to immediately withdraw
its measure in order to resume avocado trade between the two countries.
4.2.17 China's lack of transparency for certain SPS measures
– Concerns of the United States (No. 184)
4.53. The European Union supported
the points made by the United States and Australia, and underlined its
particular concern about the new Chinese certification regime. The European
Union feared that this specific measure would not be justified by any risk
assessment, as the products concerned – pasta, confectionary or baked products
– were inherently safe, and would impose a disproportionate and unnecessary
burden on the exporting countries. The European Union looked forward to seeing
the Chinese notification for this measure, and to work with China on this
issue.
5 operation of
transparency provisions
5.2 European Union – Transparency Provision of the
SPS Agreement
5.7. The European Union thanked
the Secretariat for its work on improving the SPS tools, and reiterated its
interest in other topics from the October 2015 transparency workshop such as:
(i) facilitating access to Members' SPS import requirements via dedicated
websites; (ii) conducting a discussion on trade facilitating measures; and
(iii) sharing unofficial translations of notified regulations. On the
first and second topics, the European Union indicated that it might submit
proposals in the future. On the third one, the European Union supported posting
unofficial translations of notified documents, with a disclaimer, on the WTO SPS
webpage. The European Union underlined that these translations should be
unofficial, unless otherwise agreed by the notifying Member, and that their
access should be restricted to Members only. The European Union sought
clarification on whether this new procedure would run in parallel with the
current one, i.e. sharing of unofficial translations through the notification
of supplements, or not.
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[1] This document has been prepared under the Secretariat's own
responsibility and is without prejudice to the positions of Members or to their
rights and obligations under the WTO.
* In English and
French only.