National Workshop on the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

RIS, jointly with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, organized a National Workshop on the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures on February 27, 2004 in New Delhi. Dr S.R. Hashim, Member, Union Public Service Commission, inaugurated the workshop. Shri R. Gopalan, Jt Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry made a keynote address in the inaugural session. Dr Nagesh Kumar, Director-General, RIS and Dr Rajesh Mehta, Senior Fellow, RIS also addressed the inaugural session. RIS, since June 2002, has been engaged in multi-country research study on "Food Safety Standards and Processed Food Exports from Developing Countries: A Comparative Study on India and Thailand". The objective of the workshop was to provide an opportunity for various stakeholders to come together and discuss issues of Agreement on SPS Measures.

The first session on "Overview of SPS Agreement" was chaired by Dr S R Hashim. Dr Rajesh Mehta, Prof J. George, Sr Consultant, RIS; and Mr Augustine Peter, Director, Ministry of Commerce, were the facilitators. The second session on "Risk Analysis in SPS Agreement" was chaired by Mr Prem Narain, Jt Secretary (Plant Protection), Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India. The theme of the third session was "SPS Related Disputes in WTO" which was chaired by Mr Abhijit Das, Director, Ministry of Commerce and had Mr James Nedumpara of UNCTAD as facilitator. Mr R. Gopalan chaired the fourth session on Experiences of Implementing SPS Measures by Ministries/Departments and EPCs. In this session interventions were made by Dr P S Chandurkar, Directorate of Plant Protection,Quarantine & Storage; 

Dr O.R. Reddy, Jt Director,Department of Agriculture and Cooperation; Mr S K Srivastava, Director (Trade), Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying; Dr R K Mahajan, Asstt. Director-General (PFA), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare;Mr A K Shrivastav, Dy Asstt. Director-General) PFA); representatives from other Ministries/ Departments of Government of India and EPCs. Dr Rajesh Mehta chaired the concluding session at which Shri R Gopalan made the concluding remarks and Mr Augustine Peter extended the vote of thanks.