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The issue of "transparency" is laid down in Article 7 of the SPS Agreement and reads as follows: Members shall notify changes in their sanitary or phytosanitary measures and shall provide information on their sanitary or phytosanitary measures in accordance with the provisions of Annex B". Its aim is to achieve a greater degree of clarity, predictability and information about trade policies, rules and regulations of WTO Members. Under the SPS Agreement, notifications are used to inform other Members about new or changed regulations that may significantly affect their trading partners. |
These procedures have been developed to assist Members fulfil their transparency obligations under Article 7 and Annex B of the SPS Agreement. These procedures are managed by the Notification Authorities and the National Enquiry Points, the first one handling the notifications and the second the requests for information, comments and clarifications.
These procedures have been developed to assist Members fulfil their transparency obligations under Article 7 and Annex B of the SPS Agreement regarding the notification of SPS regulations, answering information requests under the national enquiry point system and publishing regulations.
EU Activity reports
Monthly Reports: 2010 - 2009 - 2008 - 2007
Annual Reports: Click here
EU notifications
Monthly Reports: January - February - March - April
Workshops
On 18 October and continued on 22 October 2010 workshop on the transparency provisions of the SPS Agreement took place in Geneva, Switzerland. The objective of the workshop was to enhance the implementation and benefits of the transparency provisions of the SPS Agreement, in particular by sharing experiences on how to operate an effective SPS National Notification Authority and Enquiry Point. The first day of the workshop provided for an overview of transparency issues and allow for exchange of national experiences in the plenary and during break-out sessions. The second day of the workshop was more hands-on with practical exercises on notifications. All presentations could be find on : WTO link.
Transparency has been discussed for a long time during several workshops. This led to the adoption of a document
G/SPS/W215 rev2
on 30 May 2008.
Presentations from the 15-16 October 2007 workshop
on the subject are available through the SPS gateway of the WTO website. The outcome of this workshop
was detailed in the SPS Document G/SPS/R/47 of 8 January 2008.
For more information on the following go to the WTO link.
Communications from the EU to WTO Members
EU SPS Enquiry Point submitted, on the Application of Article 7 of the SPS Agreement, the following documents: