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EQUIVALENCE
It is often the case that
importing and exporting countries operate different food inspection and certification
systems that incorporate different technical requirements. These requirements may
relate to matters such as the control of production and processing systems, conformity
assessment systems, language(s) used to label products and mechanism for prevention
of fraud.
The reasons for these differences
include differences in prevalence of particular food safety hazards, national choice
about management of food safety risks and difference in the historical development
of food control systems.
In such cases, and in order
to facilitate trade, there is a need to determine the effectiveness of sanitary
measures of the exporting country in achieving the appropriate level of sanitary
protection of the importing country. This has led to the recognition of the principle
of equivalence as provided for in the World Trade Organization Agreement on the
Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.
Article 4 of the SPS Agreement
states as follows:
"Members shall accept
the SPS measures of other members as equivalent, even if these measures differ from
their own or those used by other members trading in the same product, if the exporting
member objectively demonstrates to the importing member that its measures achieve
the importing member's appropriate level of sanitary or phyto sanitary protection
Members shall upon request,
enter into consultation with the aim of achieving bilateral or multilateral agreements
or recognition of the equivalence of specified SPS measures."
Equivalence (of sanitary
measures), as defined in the SPS Agreement, is
"the state wherein
technical requirements applied in an exporting country, though different from the
requirements applied in an importing country, achieves the country's stated objective
for that technical requirement."
Equivalence, as defined
in CAC GL 26-1997 Guidelines for design, operation, assessment and accreditation
of food import and export inspection certification systems:
Equivalence is the capability
of different inspection and certification systems to meet the same objectives.
The Codex Alimentarius Commission,
through its Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection Systems (CCFICS), elaborates
guidelines for food import and export inspection systems to protect the health of
consumers and ensure fair practices in trade. The work on this subject was initiated
at the 7th session of CCFICS (1998) and approved at the 23rd Session of the Commission
(2000) to be taken up as a Discussion Paper, which was considered by CCFICS at its
8th Session (2000). This resulted in the Proposed Draft Guidelines for Judgement
of Equivalence of Sanitary Measures associated with Food Inspection and Certification
Systems at Step 3 of the elaboration procedure.
The 9th Session of CCFICS
(2000) advanced the proposal to Step 5 with recommendation to the 24th Session of
the Commission (2001) for adoption at Steps 5 and 8, omitting Steps 6 and 7. While
discussing the proposed Guidelines, the Commission noted that the intention of these
Guidelines was to assist countries, especially developing countries, in application
of provisions of equivalence in the WTO SPS agreement in so far as the food import
export certification of foods was concerned. The Executive Committee had also accorded
high priority to this work. It noted the concerns of the developing countries raised
in SPS Committees of the difficulties faced in having the equivalence of their exported
products recognized in terms of health protection and the need for clear guidelines
in this area. However in light of views of several delegations for further consideration
of the document, it was adopted at Step 5 only.
At the10th Session of CCFICS
(2002) the document was considered in light of comments received. However, as no
consensus could be reached it was agreed that the drafting group would prepare a
revised version of the draft Guidelines for circulation, additional comments at
Step 6 and further consideration at the next meeting.
The draft Guidelines contains
the following broad sections:
Definitions
Sanitary Measures
and the Determination of Equivalence
General Principles for Determination of Equivalence
Procedure for Determination of Equivalence
Judgement of Equivalence
It is envisaged that the
Guidelines adopted at Step 8 would be useful to governments and clearly identify
the separate but complementary roles, responsibilities and mandates of the CAC and
the WTO.
(NOTE: India has had consistent
representation at meetings of the CCFICS and has contributed to the development
of these Draft Guidelines.)
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