18 April, 2008 - Private standards increasingly employed by companies on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) could be discriminatory, inconsistently applied, lack transparency and be based on commercial rather than scientific interests, said Dr Bernard Vallat, director general of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).
Dr Vallat said the OIE had “serious concerns” about individual sanitary rules put into place by firms – particularly supermarkets – and has called for them to be scrutinised to see if they are undermining international SPS agreements. He cautioned that “haphazard” private rules could undermine the OIE’s position.
In a paper to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr Vallat appeared to suggest that many such private standards could even be breaking SPS rules.
He said: “The OIE views with concern the entry into effect of private standards in the fields of animal health, food safety and animal welfare. Private standards have not, to date, been tested for compliance with the disciplines of the SPS Agreement and there is reason to believe that many private standards are not consistent with SPS obligations.”
The OIE chief said such regulation relating to sanitary measures on animal and plant health as well as food safety, were an unfair restriction on trade, and penalised developing countries hardest.
“There are reasons to consider that private standards in the sanitary field represent unjustified restrictions to trade,” he wrote in a paper to the WTO’s SPS Committee.
He added “The implementation of private standards effectively introduces new - or stricter - sanitary measures, compared with those applied by the Competent Authority according to the recommendations of relevant international standard-setting bodies (OIE, Codex and IPPC).”
Dr Vallat questioned the objectivity of such private regulations and expressed concern that they were based on commercial rather than scientific grounds.
He said: “The private standards may or may not be applied in a consistent manner to domestic and imported goods, or to all exporters, potentially leading to discriminatory treatment of certain products or countries.
“The OIE considers that private standards seldom have a scientific basis, especially if they are introduced for purely commercial reasons (e.g. to differentiate in the marketplace products that are equivalent in sanitary terms).
“Moreover, private standards are essentially private transactions, primarily between suppliers and retailers, and may not, therefore be implemented or managed in a transparent manner (as the objective is to establish a preference for products from certain producers, there is little to be gained by publishing details of how the supposed positive characteristics have been obtained).”
Dr Vallat contrasted OIE standards - based on scientific risk - with commercial standards rooted in the desires of companies and consumers that are not necessarily based on science.
“OIE standards are developed on the basis of a scientific risk assessment and adopted through the democratic procedures of the OIE.
“In contrast, private standards, which are mainly based on commercial quality schemes, depend upon the wishes of commercial parties and consumers and tend towards a non-scientific, ‘zero-risk’, marketing approach that is likely to stifle trade in animals and animal products.
“Certification in regard to these schemes is the responsibility of private organizations, not of a Competent Government Authority. Commercial considerations underpin the validity and credibility of private certification schemes and there is no obligation to comply with OIE standards or SPS disciplines.”
He concluded by urging the SPS Committee to analyse the use of private standards relating to health and safety to find out if they are limiting trade and are concentrated in a particular region.
The SPS Committee could also become a form where concerns about private standards be discussed. The committee could even issue recommendations based on such discussions, he suggested.
Dr Vallat said: “The OIE considers that it is important to prevent the haphazard introduction of non science-based measures, in relation to both animal health and welfare. With this in mind, the OIE urges countries, regional organizations and international organizations to strongly support the OIE’s standards, including its recommendations on animal welfare, as the appropriate references for the purpose of international trade.”