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EQUIVALENCE
It
is often the case that importing and exporting
countries operate different food inspection
and certification systems that incorporate
different technical requirements. These requirements
may relate to matters such as the control
of production and processing systems, conformity
assessment systems, language(s) used to label
products and mechanism for prevention of fraud.
The
reasons for these differences include differences
in prevalence of particular food safety hazards,
national choice about management of food safety
risks and difference in the historical development
of food control systems.
In
such cases, and in order to facilitate trade,
there is a need to determine the effectiveness
of sanitary measures of the exporting country
in achieving the appropriate level of sanitary
protection of the importing country. This
has led to the recognition of the principle
of equivalence as provided for in the World
Trade Organization Agreement on the Application
of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.
Article
4 of the SPS Agreement states as follows:
"Members
shall accept the SPS measures of other members
as equivalent, even if these measures differ
from their own or those used by other members
trading in the same product, if the exporting
member objectively demonstrates to the importing
member that its measures achieve the importing
member's appropriate level of sanitary or
phyto sanitary protection
Members
shall upon request, enter into consultation
with the aim of achieving bilateral or multilateral
agreements or recognition of the equivalence
of specified SPS measures."
Equivalence
(of sanitary measures), as defined in the
SPS Agreement, is
"the
state wherein technical requirements applied
in an exporting country, though different
from the requirements applied in an importing
country, achieves the country's stated objective
for that technical requirement."
Equivalence,
as defined in CAC GL 26-1997 Guidelines
for design, operation, assessment and accreditation
of food import and export inspection certification
systems:
Equivalence
is the capability of different inspection
and certification systems to meet the same
objectives.
The
Codex Alimentarius Commission, through its
Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection
Systems (CCFICS), elaborates guidelines for
food import and export inspection systems
to protect the health of consumers and ensure
fair practices in trade. The work on this
subject was initiated at the 7th session of
CCFICS (1998) and approved at the 23rd Session
of the Commission (2000) to be taken up as
a Discussion Paper, which was considered by
CCFICS at its 8th Session (2000). This resulted
in the Proposed Draft Guidelines for Judgement
of Equivalence of Sanitary Measures associated
with Food Inspection and Certification Systems
at Step 3 of the elaboration procedure.
The
9th Session of CCFICS (2000) advanced the
proposal to Step 5 with recommendation to
the 24th Session of the Commission (2001)
for adoption at Steps 5 and 8, omitting Steps
6 and 7. While discussing the proposed Guidelines,
the Commission noted that the intention of
these Guidelines was to assist countries,
especially developing countries, in application
of provisions of equivalence in the WTO SPS
agreement in so far as the food import export
certification of foods was concerned. The
Executive Committee had also accorded high
priority to this work. It noted the concerns
of the developing countries raised in SPS
Committees of the difficulties faced in having
the equivalence of their exported products
recognized in terms of health protection and
the need for clear guidelines in this area.
However in light of views of several delegations
for further consideration of the document,
it was adopted at Step 5 only.
At
the10th Session of CCFICS (2002) the document
was considered in light of comments received.
However, as no consensus could be reached
it was agreed that the drafting group would
prepare a revised version of the draft Guidelines
for circulation, additional comments at Step
6 and further consideration at the next meeting.
The
draft Guidelines contains the following broad
sections:
Definitions
Sanitary
Measures and the Determination of Equivalence
General Principles for Determination of
Equivalence
Procedure for Determination of Equivalence
Judgement of Equivalence
It
is envisaged that the Guidelines adopted at
Step 8 would be useful to governments and
clearly identify the separate but complementary
roles, responsibilities and mandates of the
CAC and the WTO.
(NOTE:
India has had consistent representation at
meetings of the CCFICS and has contributed
to the development of these Draft Guidelines.)
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