DUSHANBE, November 9, 2010, Asia-Plus — The first meeting of the newly-established Working Group on the Transparency Provisions in the WTO Agreements on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) is being held in Dushanbe today, according to Abdulfattoh Shafiyev, National Consultant on Public Relations, Trade Promotion Program in Tajikistan.
The establishing of the Working Group on SPS and TBT and conducting its 1st meeting are supported by the International Trade Centre (ITC) under the Trade Promotion Program in Tajikistan funded by SECO in close cooperation with the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Tajikistan.
Mr. Shyam Kumar Gujadhur, ITC Senior Adviser on Standards and Quality Management, and Mr. Digby Gascoine, International Consultant on SPS, are expected to discuss with the participants about information retrieval and dissemination in the framework of the WTO Agreements on SPS & TBT. Terms of reference of the Working Group on TBT and SPS and modalities for its functioning will also be discussed in the meeting.
Mr. Shyam Kumar Gujadhur, ITC Senior Adviser on Standards and Quality Management, who is in mission to Tajikistan, says: “There is a need to improve understanding of the obligations in the transparency provisions of the WTO Agreements on TBT and SPS and the benefits that could be derived from them for market access. There is a need to evaluate the assignment of roles and responsibilities between the various agencies of the Government of Tajikistan that are engaged in the SPS area (food safety and animal and plant health).”
Representatives from the relevant ministries and state agencies, international organizations, and private sector representatives will participate in the meeting.
During their mission to Tajikistan ITC experts also will meet with the officials from the relevant ministries, state agencies and international organizations, as well as visit to the Sanitary Control Point in Tursunzoda district. Under the ITC project it is planned to initiate a study which analyses, inter alia, options to rationalize the responsibilities of different agencies in the SPS area in order to minimize duplication and improve the efficiency of SPS program implementation; and provide assistance for making the NNA and NEPs for TBT and SPS operational.
The overall objective of Trade Promotion Program in Tajikistan is to contribute to the sustainable expansion and diversification of SMEs’ exports in Tajikistan through increasing the competitiveness of the textile and clothing industry and improving the quality management infrastructure of the country. This project is funded by the Government of Switzerland through the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
