. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/W/134/Add.1
3 October 2001
(01-4745)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English/
French/Spanish
THE DEVELOPMENT OF A VOLUNTARY STANDARD FOR THE LABELLING
OF FOODS DERIVED FROM BIOTECHNOLOGY
Communication from Canada
Addendum
The following communication, dated 2 October 2001, has been received from Canada with
the request that it be circulated to Members of the Committee.
_______________
Further to Canada's earlier contribution (G/TBT/W/134) of 23 May 2000 (The Development
of a Voluntary Standard for the Labelling of F oods Derived from Biotechnology), Canada would like
to advise Committee Members that the first draft of the proposed new National Standard of Canada –
"Standard For Voluntary Claims About Foods That Are And Are Not Products of Gene Technology"is available for comment.
The Canadian General Standards Board, an accredited standards development organization
within the federal government which has accepted the TBT Agreement's "Code of Good Practice" has
managed the process of developing this draft standard.  The draft was developed by a committee with
representation from food producers, manufacturers, distributors, consumers, general interest and
government groups.
The document has been available for public review since August 17.  It can be found on the
Internet at the following sites:
<http://www.pwgsc.gc.ca/cgsb/032_025/index-e.html>
http://www.pwgsc.gc.ca/cgsb/032_025/index-e.html(English)
<http://www.pwgsc.gc.ca/te xt/generic/whats-e.html>
http://www.pwgsc.gc.ca/text/generic/whats-e.html, (English)
http://www.pwgsc.gc.ca/cgsb/032_025/index-f.html (French)
<http://www.pwgsc.gc.ca/te xt/generic/whats-f.html>
http://www.pwgsc.gc.ca/text/generic/whats-f.html.(French)
Canada remains concerned with what appears to be a growing trend of Members opting to
impose mandatory labelling requirements, which go beyond a scientifically-based food safety
objective, for food derived from biotechnology.G/TBT/W/134/Add.1
Page 2
We believe the current process we have in place in Canada to develop a voluntary standard is
an equally effective and less trade-restrictive appr oach for providing information to consumers.  We
encourage other Members considering the development of measures in the area of labelling of foods
derived from biotechnology to look to this model as an approach that is consistent with
WTO obligations.
We look forward to continuing this discussion at the TBT Committee.  Comments on the draft
standard itself are welcome and should be addressed to the contact point listed on the first page of the
draft standard, and provided on or before 17 October 2001.
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