WORLD TRADE G/TBT/Notif.97.441
18September 1997
ORGANIZATION
(97-3744)
Committee onTechnical Barriers toTrade
NOTIFICATION
Thefollowing notification isbeing circulated inaccordance withArticle 10.6.
1. Member toAgreement notifying: NETHERLANDS
Ifapplicable, name oflocalgovernment involved (Articles 3.2and7.2):
2. Agency responsible: Ministry ofAgriculture, Nature Management andFisheries.
Agency orauthority designated tohandle comments regarding thenotification canbe
indicated ifdifferent from above: National Enquiry Point
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X],2.10.1 [],5.6.2 [],5.7.1 [],other:
4. Products covered (HSorCCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading.
ICSnumbers maybeprovided inaddition, where applicable): Sewage sludge, compost
andblack soil.
5. Title, number ofpages andlanguage(s) ofthenotified document: Decree on(Quality
andUseof)Other Organic Fertilizers. Regulation onsampling andanalyzing other
organic fertilisers.
6. Description ofcontent: TheRegulation ispartoftheDecree ontheQuality andUseof
other Organic Fertilisers. TheDecree regulates thesaleanduseofsewage sludge,
compost andblack soil(amixture ofsoilcomponents andprocessed organic waste
products). Itisprohibited tosellandusesewage sludge, compost andblack soilifthe
prescribed composition requirements arenotmet. Regulations havebeenlaiddown for
compost (Appendix II,B),veryclean compost (Appendix III)andblack soil(Appendix
IV). Pursuant toArticles 8and16oftheDecree, further rules have beendrafted for
sampling andanalysis, laiddown inthepresent Regulation onthesampling andanalysis
ofother organic fertilisers. According totheDutch government, thedraft Regulation
specified inpoint 5probably contains technical regulations within themeaning ofthe
TBTAgreement. Reference canbemade toArticle 5,which specifies thatsampling and
analysis ofother fertilisers must becarried outinaccordance withtheregulations of
Appendix I,aswellasAppendix Iitself.
7. Objective andrationale: Environmental protection.
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8. Relevant documents: Articles 8and16oftheDecree ontheQuality andUseofother
Organic Fertilisers.
9. Proposed dateofadoption: 26October 1997
Proposed dateofentry intoforce: 26October 1997
10. Final dateforcomments: 25October 1997
TheNetherlands willproceed toimplement theproposed measure after45days
ifnocomments orrequests forextension ofthetimelimithavebeenreceived from
other Members within thattime.
11. Texts available from: National enquiry point [X]oraddress andtelefax number ofother
body: