1.
Regional workshop:
WTO Trade Facilitation
Agreement impact on
agrifood trade
Odessa, Ukraine, 30.05 - 31.05.2017

2.
International legal instruments governing
agricultural trade: focus on quality and safety
Dr Kenza Le Mentec
World Trade Organization
Regional workshop on the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement’s impact on agri-food trade
May 30-June 1, Odessa, Ukraine

3.
RELEVANT WTO AGREEMENTS

4.
■ Most WTO agreements are relevant to international
agricultural trade, including the following:
■ General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT),
■ Agreement on Agriculture (AoA)
■ Agreements on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) and on
Customs Valuation,
■ Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs),
■ Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs)
■ Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)
■ Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
(SPS)
■ Trade Facilitation Agreement,
■ ……

5.
MORE SPECIFICALLY IN RELATION TO THE SAFETY AND
QUALITY ASPECTS

6.
■ WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation (TFA)
■ WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and
Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement)
■ WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)

7.
TRADE FACILITATION AGREEMENT (TFA)

8.
TFA’s relevance to agricultural trade?
• Adopted in 2014 and entered into force on 27
February 2017
• Seeks to expedite the movement, release and
clearance of goods across borders
=> Reduce transaction costs
• OECD estimates reduction of costs between 12,5 and 17,5 %
• Increase in exports from developing countries between 14
and 22%
• Importance of agriculture in GDP of developing countries vs.
low performance in international markets => can reduction in
transaction cost help?

9.
TFA Final Provisions:
paragraph 6
“nothing in this Agreement shall be construed as
diminishing the rights and obligations of Members
under the TBT and SPS Agreements.”
BUT…..
some TFA provisions may be "SPS-plus“ or “TBT-plus”
adding obligations going beyond SPS & TBT Agreements

10.
SPS AGREEMENT

11.
Development of SPS measures:
key principles
• SPS measures should inter alia be:
– non-discriminatory
– transparent
– not more trade-restrictive than necessary
– science-based (risk assessment)

12.
Scientific justification - Harmonization
Article 3
Standard-setting organizations
food safety plant healthanimal health

13.
Enforcement/implementation of
SPS measures – Annex C
• Members required to avoid unnecessary trade disruption and
transaction costs for traders when performing control,
inspection and approval procedures
– no undue delays;
– information requirements limited to what is necessary;
– non-discriminatory fees (not higher than actual cost of
service),
– non-discrimination in siting of facilities and selection of
samples;
– procedure to review complaints, take corrective action,
etc.
SPS Annex C closely linked to TFA

14.
TBT AGREEMENT

15.
Objective of the TBT Agreement:
■ Ensures that Technical regulations, standards and
conformity assessment procedures do not create
unnecessary obstacles to international trade.
■ The TBT Agreement applies to all products, including
industrial and agricultural products.

16.
TBT measures:
■ Three types of measures covered by the TBT Agreement
(Annex 1):
Standards
Technical
Regulations
TBT
Measures
Conformity Assessment Procedures
Voluntary Mandatory

17.
Standard-setting and the TBT Agreement:
■ TBT Agreement does not refer to a specific list of
standard-setting bodies (unlike SPS) but the following
organizations set standards and conformity
assessment procedures for agri-food that are applied
worldwide:
– International Standardization Organization (ISO),
the United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe (UNECE), the World Health Organization
(WHO), the International Organization of Vine and
Wine (OIV), the Organization for Economic Co-
operation and Development (OECD), the Codex
Alimentarius Commission, …etc.

18.
“SPS-
or TBT
-plus”
Provide advance
rulings besides tariff
classification and origin
(TF Art. 3)
Publish wide range of
information related to
import/export requirements
and procedures
(TF Art. 1)
Border Agency
Cooperation
(TF Art. 8)
Inform on detention of
goods and facilitate
test procedures
(TF Art. 5)
Allow pre-arrival
processing / Publish
average release times
(TF Art. 7)
Freedom of transit: Limit
formalities and
documentation
requirements
(TF Art. 11)
Review and publish
fees and charges
(TF Art. 6)
Review and reduce
import/export transit
formalities
(TF Art. 10)

19.
Thank you for your attention
Kenza Le Mentec
email: Kenza.lementec@wto.org