REPORT ON MATTERS RELATING TO THE APPLICATION OF THE WTO SPS AND TBT AGREEMENTS (AGENDA ITEM 6)[14]

41. The 22nd session of the Commission requested the Secretariat to write to the chair of the WTO Committee on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures in order to obtain clarification on how the Committee would “differentiate standards, guidelines and other recommendations” in relation to the SPS Agreement. The response of the Chair of the SPS Committee is provided verbatim in the working paper.

42. The Executive Committee noted the following features in the reply:

• the SPS Committee cannot formally interpret the provisions of the SPS Agreement;
• the Agreement does not differentiate between the terms “standards’, “guidelines” or “recommendations”;
• there is no legal obligation on WTO Members to apply any of these Codex texts;
• how a text would be applied depended on its substantive content rather than on the category of the text;
• Regional standards are not included in the definition of “international standards” used in the Agreement, but may be applied within a given Region.

43. The Executive Committee also noted that the above points seem to be consistent with the rulings of the Appellate Body in relation to the Panel reports concerning EC Measures Concerning Meat and Meat Products (Hormones)[15]. It also noted that the SPS Committee was of the view that the work of Codex should not be constrained by this question.

44. The Executive Committee agreed that:

• the reply of the SPS Committee should be brought to the attention of all Codex Committees;
• the reply by the SPS Committee seemed to conclude the correspondence on this matter;
• the work of Codex should move forward without concern arising from misunderstandings or misinterpretations as to how Codex standards and related texts might be used;
• the guidance given by the 22^nd Session of the Commission in relation to the status of Codex advisory texts should continue to be adhered to;
• the Committee on General Principles should examine the possibility of developing a set of appropriate preambular statements explaining the intent of different types of Codex texts.