This week two bodies: the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Committee and the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) Working Group are meeting in Geneva.
The STDF grew out of a joint communiqué issued by the Heads of FAO, OIE, World Bank, WHO and WTO at the Doha Ministerial Conference in November 2001.
SPS - Sanitary and phytosanitary measures
The SPS measures are an agreement on how governments can apply food safety and animal and plant health measures. They set out the basic rules within the WTO.
Codex, the IPPC and the OIE — sometimes known as SPS’s “three sisters” — are the three standard-setting organizations designated as reference bodies in the SPS Agreement. Codex deals with food safety, the IPPC with plant health, and the OIE with animal health and zoonoses — infectious animal diseases that can be transmitted to humans.
STDF Working Group
The Working Group consists of technical-level representatives of STDF’s partners and donors, as well as the experts of developing countries. It also includes participation by the Secretariats of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex) and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC). It reviews and approves the STDF’s work programmes and funding requests, and oversees operation of the STDF Secretariat.