The event aimed to enhance the officials’ knowledge and implementation of transparency obligations under the SPS Agreement and to strengthen coordination efforts at national and regional levels. The SPS Agreement addresses food safety and animal and plant health regulations. It encourages governments to establish national SPS measures aligned with international standards, guidelines, and recommendations.
Participants came from Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Togo, and Tunisia.
During the week-long workshop, participants worked on practical issues linked to the implementation of the SPS Agreement, how to contribute to the SPS Committee, and shared ideas on a possible mentoring system to assist developing and least developed country members, including with respect to transparency, which is currently under discussion in the Sixth Review of the Agreement. They also learned to utilize the ePing SPS&TBT Platform to meet transparency obligations mandated by the SPS Agreement and shared experiences regarding their domestic organization , leading to the identification of shared difficulties as well as good practices that could be replicated in other countries.
ONSSA also proposed at the workshop new initiatives for discussion among participants on South-South coordination on SPS matters. Support was also provided by the STDF, which shared and encouraged good practices and helped participating countries benefit from its project and knowledge work.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) secretariat made a presentation on implementing SPS transparency obligations at the continental level. Participants also gained knowledge from three standard-setting bodies: the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), and Codex Alimentarius. A guest speaker from Côte d’Ivoire introduced his experience engaging with the WTO SPS Committee and discussed the African group’s contributions in reaching SPS Ministerial Declarations at the 12th and 13th Ministerial Conferences in 2022 and 2024, respectively.
Dr Abdelkarim Moujanni, Head of Morocco’s SPS Monitoring and Market Access Service at ONSSA, commended the event for improving participants’ notification skills and fostering closer cooperation with the WTO Secretariat. He said: “The focus on the functionalities and benefits of ePing was particularly insightful, enabling participants to enhance their mastery of this tool,” adding that “ePing is a true gem with immense potential, ready to be refined and optimized for the future.”
Ms Karamatou Wabi Agbe, Head of Benin’s Food and Feed Control Service, also expressed appreciation, emphasizing that the workshop was key to “re-dynamizing notification processes at the domestic level in the represented African countries to facilitate safe internal trade.”
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