SPS HANDBOOK TRAINING MODULE: CHAPTER 3

Operating the SPS enquiry point

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3.1 Responsibilities

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The following part of the handbook explains the operation of an enquiry point and the major tasks that it handles on a routine basis:

  1. document and information requests;
  2. general enquiries; and
  3. delivery and charging.

The enquiry point is the single government body responsible to provide “answers to all reasonable questions” from interested countries, as well as for the provision of relevant documents, regarding:

  1. any sanitary or phytosanitary regulations adopted or proposed within its territory;
     
  2. any control and inspection procedures, production and quarantine treatment, pesticide tolerance and food additive approval procedures, which are operated within its territory;
     
  3. risk assessment procedures, factors taken into consideration, as well as the determination of the appropriate level of sanitary or phytosanitary protection;
     
  4. the membership and participation of the country, or of relevant bodies within its territory, in international and regional sanitary and phytosanitary organizations and systems,
     
  5. the membership and participation of the country in bilateral and multilateral agreements and arrangements within the scope of the SPS Agreement; and,
     
  6. the texts of such agreements and arrangements.

Enquiry points should also provide, upon request, information on participation in any bilateral or multilateral equivalence agreements and arrangements.

  

  

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