The United States raised four new technical barriers to trade at a meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) committee on food safety and animal and plant health last month.
The Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Committee also discussed 12 issues previously raised at its meeting on 24-26 June 2020.
The technical barriers to trade (STC) identified by the US were Thailand's draft hazardous substances list regarding foods containing pesticide residues, India's new requirements for animal feed, China's administrative measures for the registration of foreign manufacturers of imported foods and the Vietnam regulations on food and animal husbandry – the latter was raised jointly with Argentina.
Thirteen other new STCs included Saudi Arabia's temporary suspension of Brazilian poultry export plants raised by Brazil, Costa Rica's restriction on imports of dairy products raised by Mexico, blanket restrictions on imports of chocolate and cocoa products due to maximum levels of cadmium raised by Peru, and Nepal's import ban on energy drinks raised by Thailand.
Call to delay EU rules
Some exporting countries expressed concerns about import requirements that were stricter than necessary.
Many countries have asked the European Union to suspend for 12 months and review the processes for determining maximum residue levels. (MRL) for plant protection products due to the possible negative impact on imports of fruits and vegetables from third countries. They also called for a delay in the MRL reductions planned for 2020 in response to the economic and trade downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
A 33-member group said that under the current circumstances, the implementation of sanitary and phytosanitary measures that create additional restrictions or burdens on international trade is a challenge that hinders global economic recovery efforts, especially in developing countries.
The EU, which is the world's largest single market and the largest importer of fruits and vegetables, said the rules applied are based on studies addressing the potential risk to consumer health. An EU official reiterated that all processes related to MRLs are notified to WTO members in good time to allow food companies to prepare for the modified requirements of existing rules.
During the meeting, the WTO members stressed the importance of ensuring that trade in agricultural and food products do not be overly restricted in global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Of 175 COVID-19 related notifications, a quarter were under the SPS agreement.
Initially, The measures were mainly trade restrictions and increased certification requirements.. They were notified as emergency measures and temporarily restricted imports and/or transit of terrestrial or aquatic animals from the affected areas to limit the spread of the virus.
The Philippines provides examples of emergency notifications on meat products, Switzerland covering all food on the Swiss market and Korea on wild animals considered possible intermediate hosts for COVID-19 transmission.
Other notices were on the temporary relaxation of labelling requirements for food products and measures to be implemented in organic certification processes. They also covered guidelines on the approval of SPS import clearance for meat products. Since April, the majority of members' notifications have related to measures to facilitate trade, which now account for almost half of the total.
Source: Food Safety News
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