. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/Notif.00/347
7 August 2000
(00-3219)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade
NOTIFICATION
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6.
1. Member to Agreement notifying:    THE NETHERLANDS
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):           
2. Agency responsible:   Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries
Agency or authority designated to handle comments regarding the notification shall be
indicated if different from above:   National Enquiry Point – EC WTO TBT Enquiry Point
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [ X], 2.10.1 [    ], 5.6.2 [    ], 5.7.1 [    ], other:           
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading.
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):   Animals and plants and
products originating from such animals and plants.
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   Flora and Fauna Act
6. Description of content:   Provisions to protect animal and plant species living in the wild.
Article 13 para. 1 of the Act incorporates the ban on requesting for purchase, purchasing,
acquiring, having on hand for sale or keeping in stock, selling, offering for sale,transporting, offering for transport, supplying, using for commercial profit, hiring or
renting, exchanging or offering in exchange, exhibiting for commercial purposes and
bringing into or out of the Netherlands or having about one's person plants or products of
plants, or animals or eggs, nests or product s of animals of a protected indigenous or non-
indigenous plant species or a protected indige nous or non-indigenous animal species, or an
unprotected non-indigenous animal species.   Protected indigenous and non-indigenous
animal and plant species have been designated in or by virtue of Article3, 4 or 5 of theFlora and Fauna Act.
Article 13 para. 2 of the Act specifies that the bans do not apply to animals if they originate
from a designated rearing institution, they are provided with electrical identification and
they do not pose an unacceptable risk with respect to the introduction of diseases into
indigenous fauna.
Article 14 para. 3 of the Act incorporates a ban on having about one's person, bringing into
or out of the territory of the Netherlands, requesting for sale, purchasing or acquiring,keeping in stock or having on hand for sale, selling or offering for sale, transporting,
offering for transport or supplying, using for commercial profit, hiring or renting,
exchanging or offering in exchange animals or plants of species designated for this purposein the Decree on designations of animal and plant species.
Article 15 para. 1 of the Act prohibits having about one's person, bringing into or out of the
territory of the Netherlands, requesting for sale, purchasing or acquiring, keeping in stock orhaving on hand for sale, selling or offering for sale, transporting, offering for transport or
supplying, using for commercial profit, hiring  or renting, exchanging or offering inG/TBT/Notif.00/347
Page 2
exchange  a designated device that is suitable and intended for killing or catching animals.
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:
Protection of animal and plant species living in the wild.
The bans referred to in article13 para. 1 of the Act have partly been instituted for a
number of protected indigenous and non-indigenous animal and plant species in
implementation of Directives nos. 79/4 09/EEC, 83/129/EEC and 92/43/EEC and
Regulations nos. (EC) 338/97 and 3254/91. In the case of a number of other protectedindigenous species, they have been instituted for national reasons. With regard to the latter
category of species, notification of the bans has previously taken place. They applied
already by virtue of the Nature Protection Act.
Furthermore, the bans have been instituted for the non-indigenous animal species
for reasons of species protection, animal welfare and maintenance of animal and publichealth. With the bans, the import of non-indige nous animals caught in the wild is waived
and import is restricted to animals from cont rolled rearing.  With regard to species
protection, implementation of the precautionary principle is involved since adequate
population data on animals in the wild are not always available such as will enable adefinition of a sustainable level of trade to be arrived at. With regard to animal welfare, it is
noted that animals originating from the wild are usually unsuitable as pets, in addition to
the fact that a large number of animals die during capture, trade and transportation. CITESresolution Conf 1.6 (Rev), in which countries are called on to reduce the wild capture of
animals for the trade in household pets and promote the breeding of animals for this
purpose with the ultimate aim of restricting the keeping of household pets to those speciesthat can be bred in captivity, is in this way also fleshed out.  With regard to veterinary risks,
the bans are deemed necessary to prevent, as a precautionary measure, the introduction of
diseases by animals originating from the wild with an unknown disease history.
Designation of species pursuant to article14 para. 3 of the Act takes place if animals
or plants of that species threaten the continued existence of the protected indigenous floraand fauna (article14 para. 4 of the Act).
Designation of devices pursuant to article15 para. 1 of the Act takes place if these
devices are definitely not permitted for catching animals. Only fog nets are designated in
article11 para. 1 of the Decree on the management and damage control of animals. This is in
view of the order of 24 May 1976 relating to the protection of the bird population of theBenelux Economic Union (Treaty Gazette 1976, 108).
8. Relevant documents:   The Flora and Fauna Act, particularly articles 3, 4, 5, 13, 14 para. 3
and 15 para. 1 of that Act.
9. Proposed date of adoption:  1 January 2001
Proposed date of entry into force:  2 January 2001
10. Final date for comments:   6 August 2000
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [X] or address, e-mail and telefax
number of the other body:           