TNAG-2110-FCO40-3009-Hong-Kong-participation-in-international-organisations-1990 — Page 19

ANNEX IV / P.14

ANNEX IV. COMMENTS ON THE GATT DRAFT TEXT FOR THE

FRAMEWORK OF AN AGREEMENT ON SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES

The Expert Consultation studied the draft text and expressed deep concern that an agreement on phytosanitary measures may soon be reached without the opinion of an international body of phytosanitary experts having been taken into consideration. Although the Expert Consultation examined and commented on the individual articles of the text, it was felt more appropriate to make general comments on the document as a whole in order to emphasize that the concerns related not only to the details but also to major elements and even to the underlying philosophy of the document.

It is improper that such an agreement should not consider the fact that many of the elements contained therein are already provided for under the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC). The IPPC is not just a framework for establishing guidelines or standards; it is an existing agreement to which most GATT contracting parties also contract and which, in fact, predated GATT. With the stated objective of minimizing the negative effects of sanitary and phytosanitary measures on trade, the GATT draft text appears to make every effort to supplant the IPPC with a GATT agreement and to subjugate the processes of the IPPC to a GATT Committee or panel. Throughout the text, expressions such as appropriate" and "shall be deemed" indicate that the responsibility for decisions and arbitration on phytosanitary questions will be entrusted to the proposed GATT Committee. It seemed to the Expert Consultation that, in essence, trade considerations would be placed over and above the phytosanitary security of contracting parties. Therefore, instead of strengthening the IPPC, it will have the opposite effect.

The Expert Consultation felt that the IPPC has been and shall continue to be a satisfactory structure for the consideration and resolution of international phytosanitary matters relating to trade. It was recognized that the dispute settlement provision and certain other elements of the Convention had hot been implemented but felt that this reflected the lack of a permanent administrative body in FAO and that the creation of such a body by FAO would soon rectify this deficiency.

If the draft text should be incorporated into the GATT agreement as presently formulated, there would be in existence two international documents having some similar (but also some opposing) obligations; one agreement would be derived from a trade perspective, the other from a plant quarantine perspective. The question would then arise of the legal position of countries relative to the two agreements and of the resolution of disputes resulting from their application.

The Expert Consultation considered that it would be undesirable and difficult, if not impossible, to implement the phytosanitary aspects of the proposed agreement. The intention to "harmonize" phytosanitary measures (to make measures identical, according to the usage adopted in the text) in the long-term seems quite unrealistic. Most phytosanitary problems are specific to the country

P.T.0.