Geneva, Switzerland. 25 June 2007
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) jointly organized an informal information session on private standards on 25 June 2007. It took place at the WTO headquarters in Geneva and was open to all UN and WTO Members. The session was =organized on the margins of the meeting of the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. The SPS Committee has been discussing private standards in previous meetings. UNCTAD's Consultative Task Force on Environmental Requirements and Market Access for Developing Countries has prepared about a dozen of country-case studies and held several regional workshops on the developmental and market access impact of private voluntary standards. The purpose of the information session is to give UNCTAD and WTO Members the opportunity to familiarize themselves with different private standards schemes, particularly in the area of food safety. A first session thus gave an overview of different private standards schemes. A second session focused on case studies, presenting different national experiences and the opportunities and challenges encountered. A final session addressed trade and development implications.
Presentations included:
- Global Food Safety Initiative Kevin SWOFFER, KPS Resources Ltd
- An Introduction to EurepGAP and other Private Sector Standards:Facilitating Trade through Safe and Sustainable Agriculture Nigel Garbutt, EurepGAP
- Overview of the ISO 22000 Family of Standards Kevin McKinley, ISO
- Tesco Nature's Choice: An Example of a Private Scheme Stephen Cox, CMI
- Experiences on Adjustment to Private Standards in Key Export Markets, A Case of East Africa (Uganda) Musa. K. Muwanga, NOGAMU
- Brazilian Government Initiatives on Conformity Assessment Programs Alfredo Lobo, Inmetro
- Private Standards schemes and Developing Country Market Access: Findings from 4 case studies Linda Fulponi, OECD
- Private-sector standards on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and national GAP initiatives in developing countries: Comparison of national experiences René Vossenaar
- FAO's assistance to developing countries in dealing with private standards Pascal Liu, FAO
- TBT and "Private Standards" Erik Wijkström, WTO
- Experiences in South East Asia Christie F. Robert, QA Plus
- Private standards and their implications for market access, development, WTO/trade rules Elizabeth Guttenstein, ISEAL Alliance
http://www.unctad.org/trade_env/meeting.asp?MeetingID=229 [1]