China's administrative measures for
registration of overseas manufacturers of imported food (26 November 2019)
– Specific Trade Concern 485
SUBMISSION
BY THE UNITED STATES of america
The
following submission, received on 31 March 2025, is
the statement made by the United States of America at the 19-21 March 2025
WTO SPS Committee, and is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of
the United States of America.
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1. The
United States is concerned with China's amendment to its food facility
registration measure, Decree 248, notified to the WTO in January as _G/TBT/N/CHN/1964
and _G/SPS/N/CHN/1324.
2. These
amendments do not fundamentally resolve the long-standing concern raised by
many WTO Members: that Decree 248 imposes unnecessary burdens on food
exporters and foreign competent authorities without a science- or risk-based
justification.
3. The
United States provided comments to the notified measure, in which we expressed
concern with a number of terms that we believe need more comprehensive
explanations before the United States can fully assess the impacts of such
amendments.
4. In
particular, China should clarify the concept of "systems
recognition", which appears to be a potentially new approach to
registration, and which would continue to impose unjustified burdens on trade
in safe food products.
5. China
should also further explain its methodology for assigning risk to categories of
products that are subject to this amendment. The product category list,
published concurrently with the draft amendment, continues to include low-risk
products, for which China provides unclear and unsubstantiated justification.
These unsubstantiated justifications also do not explain how the burdensome
facility registration procedures will control the alleged hazards identified.
6. The
United States remains concerned that the amendment, as with the original
Decree, does not appear to consider less restrictive measures for these
low-risk products, such as allowing self‑registration as the primary pathway
for facility registration.
7. The
United States is also concerned that the amendments do not address how
self-registered products will be managed in the future, and we request that China
clarify the requirements that will apply to this category of products.
8. Finally,
the meaning and implications of China's concept of "international
co-governance" are unclear. The United States would appreciate a fuller
explanation of this concept and its impact on competent authorities and food
business operators within the context of these amendments.
9. The
United States remains interested and available to continue working bilaterally
with China to obtain clarifying responses to our questions and comments on the
notification, as well to address the overall concerns with this measure that
the United States has expressed.
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