Agriculture & Food Security » Standards and Trade Issues

The 1st D-8 Agricultural Ministerial Meeting on Food Security held on 25-27 February 2009 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, identified Standards on Trade as one of areas under agricultural cooperation. The Meeting also agreed to establish Working Group on Marine Affairs and Fisheries with the aim of harmonizing the standards of food products and will serve as a coordinating body among member states to enhance and facilitate the trade of food and agricultural commodities. The Meeting underlined that there is a need among Member States to improve the standards to facilitate the trade that leads to the improvement of the economy of the members. This is considered to be important bearing in mind that the standards on foodstuff supply chain in the Member States may be different. Such standards may be applied to the products, quality assurance system as well as food safety. At the 2nd Agricultural Ministerial Meeting on Food Security held 16-18 May 2011 in Tehran, Iran, the Meeting adopted key strategic initiatives of the Group as follows:
  • Improving trade and revenue on food and agricultural commodities among D-8 Member States via good standards and practices
  • Identifying and sharing of information on standards and regulations among D-8 member countries while taking into account the output of the relevant D-8 subsidiary bodies
  • Supporting every efforts of harmonizing the Halal Standards among Member States so that halal products from a member can be recognized as a halal product in other Member States
  • Suggesting the development of “D-8-Labelling” on varying commodities (crops, livestock and fishery) produced in D-8-agricultural sectors to facilitate authorization and inspection related to Standards on Trade codes and conducts

Subsequent to the KL Initiative, in the Standard & Trade Issues sub-sector, the following meeting has been held by D-8 Organization:

1) 1st Working Group on Standards & Trade Issues (16 May 2011, Tehran, Iran)
Member Countries drafted the 1st Draft on Terms of Reference (ToR) for D-8 Working Group on Standards and Trade Issues. However, ToR has not been finalized during the meeting and Member Countries agreed to submit their comments, views abd additional inputs to the draft of the prime mover country (Iran) by the end of June 2011. If the Member Countries unable to finalize the draft of ToR, it was suggested that the 2nd Working Group Meeting on Standards and Trade Issues should be convened. In this line, Iran as Prime Mover shall initiate communication in organizing a meeting to resolve any pending issues in the future.

2) 5th Agriculture Ministerial Meeting on Food Security held on 01-03 December 2014 in Istanbul, Turkey

4th Working Group Meeting on Standard and Trade: The followings have been discussed:

  • TOR reconsidered and finalized.
  • Islamic Republic of Iran would submit the prototype of the website link to the Secretariat within three months. Member States would provide the necessary input. The mentioned prototype would be an interactive portal, which would be capable to receive, process, classify and disseminate information.
  • The information sharing rules and regulation shall be considered in the framework of ethical standards.
  • A list on priority products to be prepared for each Member State to facilitate the trade of those particular products for the avoidance of potential problems at the borders due to non-conformity of standards. Member States to submit the list to the Secretariat by the 1st of January 2015 and to be shared with all the Member States.
  • To improve trade by eliminating obstacles among the Member States, it is necessary to elaborate, propose and implement a common set of standard rules for specific agriculture products.

At the 2nd Working Group Meeting on Standards and Trade Issues (WGST) which was held on 3 October 2012 in Mataram-Indonesia, the following outcomes were emerged:

Consideration and Adoption of Draft ToR of the WG on Standards and Trade Issues

6. With regard to the Terms of Reference of WGST, the meeting discussed the general comments of the document. The meeting discussed the mandate of this working group, as proposed by Indonesian delegate, to focus on standards on trade.

7. The meeting proposed to change the name of Working Group on Standard and Trade Issues to Working Group on Standards on Trade, since the related trade issues were being mandated under the Supervisory Committee of D-8. The objective of the WG proposed to be directly aimed for enhancing food trade facilitation among D-8 member countries.

 Egypt
Prof. Dr. Abdelwakil Mohammed Aboutaleb
Name: Prof. Dr. Abdelwakil Mohammed Aboutaleb
Email: abd-abo@hotmail.com
Mobile: +201001477569
Address: Ministry for Agriculture and Land Reclamation
Country: Egypt
Mustapha A. Abubakar
Name: Mustapha A. Abubakar
Designation: Chief Administrative Officer
Email: sardaunahabu@gmail.com
Mobile: +2348037043764
Address: Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
Country: Nigeria