RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SPS/W/110
27 June 2001
(01-3214)
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
REVIEW OF THE PROVISIONAL PROCEDURE TO MONITOR
THE PROCESS OF INTERNATIONAL HARMONIZATION
Note by the Secretariat
1. At its meeting of 15-16 October 1997, the Committee adopted a provisional procedure to
monitor the use of international standards (G/SPS/11).  This provisional procedure was extended, by
decision of the Committee on 8 July 1999, for a further 24 months (G/SPS/14).  In making the
July 1999 decision, the Committee also agreed to review the operation of the provisional procedure by
July 2001, with a view to deciding then whether to continue with the same procedure, amend it ordevelop another one.
2. Since the adoption of the monitoring procedure in October 1997, Members have used the
procedure to bring a total of nine standards-relate d issues to the attention of the Committee.  All of
these issues were raised prior to the July 1999 meeting of the Committee;  no additional issues have
been identified since that date.  The attention of the relevant standard-setting organizations was drawn
to the issues raised by Members.  In all cases, the standard-setting organizations have addressed these
concerns in their respective competent bodies, and have regularly reported actions to the SPS
Committee.  The second annual report (G/SPS/16) and draft third annual report (G/SPS/W/109)
summarize the information provided by the standard-setting organizations.
3. It is disappointing that so little use has been made of this procedure in the past two years.  A
number of Members have raised concerns regarding th eir difficulty in effectively participating in the
work of the standard-setting organizations, and have questioned whether the international standardsappropriately address their particular needs.  However, Members have failed to make use of the
monitoring procedure to bring their concerns regard ing specific standards, or the needs for standards,
to the relevant standard-setting organizations.
4. At the same time, the fact that in the past issues have been raised by both developing and
developed country Members, and that the issues rais ed have dealt with matters within the competence
of all three relevant standard-setting organization s, leads to the conclusion that the provisional
procedure is not difficult to use.  However, it is possible that Members have found it difficult to
comply with the requirement to identify those stan dard-setting issues which they wish to raise one
month in advance of each Committee meeting.  In c ontrast, the deadline for identifying specific trade
concerns or notifications which Members wish to address during a meeting is only 10 days.  Althoughthe 30-day advance notice is desirable in order to permit other Members and the relevant standard-
setting organizations to better prepare their comments, it may have the effect of reducing the use of
this procedure.
5. Because of this, the Committee may wish to modify the provisional procedure, in particular
the time periods specified in paragraphs 6 and 7 of the procedure.  The deadline for a Member tosubmit concrete examples of what they consider to be standards-related problems could be reduced to
10 days prior to each regular meeting.  This would make impossible the advance circulation of a
provisional list of issues and submissions to all Members as foreseen in paragraph 7, but would permitG/SPS/W/110
Page 2
such issues to be specifically identified on the dr aft agenda circulated 10 days prior to the meeting.
Members could then prepare comments regarding their use or non-use of the standards within the
same delays in which they prepare their comments regarding specific trade concerns or notifications
identified in the proposed agenda.
6. The Committee is invited to adopt the attached draft decision to modify the time periods for
the identification of issues and to extend the provisional procedure for a further 24 months, and to
encourage Members to make greater use of this mechanism for addressing their standards-related
concerns.G/SPS/W/110
Page 3
DRAFT
DECISION TO MODIFY AND EXTEND THE PROVISIONAL PROCEDURE TO
MONITOR THE PROCESS OF INTERNATIONAL HARMONIZATION
The Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures,
Having regard to  Articles 3.5 and 12.4 of the SPS Agreement;
Taking into account  the provisional procedure to monitor the use of international standards adopted
by the Committee at its meeting of 15-16 October 1997 (G/SPS/11); the Committee's decision of
8 July 1999 to extend this provisional procedure for a further 24 months, and to decide by July 2001
whether to continue with the same procedure, amend it or develop another one (G/SPS/14);
Considering  that in reviewing the operation of the provisional procedure, it has noted that the
procedure provided an effective mechanism for Memb ers to raise specific standards-related issues;
Considering  that certain changes could improve recourse by Members to this procedure;
Considering the discussion at its meeting of 10-11 July 2001;
Decides as follows:
1. In the first sentence of paragraph 6 of the provisional procedure, the words "at least 30 days"
are replaced by the words "at least 10 days".
2. Paragraph 7 of the provisional procedure is replaced by the following:
The Secretariat should include on the proposed agenda of the meeting
all of the standards, guidelines or recommendations identified by
Members as foreseen in paragraph 6.  The Secretariat should
circulate the submissions it has received to all Members, as much in
advance of the Committee's meeting as possible, and not later than 10days before the meeting, in order to provide Members with the
opportunity to prepare comments on their use or non-use of the
standards, guidelines or recommendations and the reasons therefore.
Should any Member so request, the Secretariat will not include in its
annual report on this monitoring procedure (see paragraph 10) any
specific issue raised in these submissions until Members have had the
opportunity to provide further comments and to discuss thosecomments in one additional Committee meeting subsequent to the
meeting in which the issue is first raised.
3. The provisional procedure to monitor the use of international standards, as modified, is
extended for a further 24 months.
4. The Committee will review the operation of the provisional procedure by July 2003, with a
view to deciding then whether to continue with the same procedure, amend it or develop another one.
5. The Committee encourages Members to make use of this procedure to address their concerns
regarding specific international standards or the need for such standards.
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