Activity report of the EU WTO sanitary and phytosanitary notification authority & enquiry point : 2023 edition

While the European Union (EU) and its Member States (MSs) are members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on their own right and as such have their own SPS Enquiry Points, the EU authority responsible for implementing the notification requirements of the SPS Agreement is centralised in DG SANTE Unit A4. This report provides an overview of the general developments of WTO notifications from 1995 to 2023, followed by a closer look at last year, both on WTO level and with particular focus on the EU. 2023 was again a busy year in WTO SPS notifications, with 1993 notifications submitted by WTO members. It is interesting to note that while the total number of notifications decreased by an 8.24% 2023 compared with 2022, the number of EU notifications increased by a 19%, which lifted us from the 5th to the 4th place and shows the EU remains amongst the champions of transparency. Most of the notifications issued by the EU in 2023 concerned feed additives, followed by pesticides. Food safety remains by far the area generating most SPS notifications, followed by animal health and, to a lesser extent, plant protection, the protection of the Member's territory from other damage from pests and the protection of humans from animal diseases or plant pests. In contrast, emergency notifications only referred to plant health protection. EU notifications continued to attract great interest from trade partners with the United States, China, Australia, Brazil and Japan as the most active actors to comment on the EU legislation, either in writing (48 comments received last year) or in the form of Specific Trade Concerns raised at the SPS committee. The EU also played an active role in monitoring and responding to notifications from other WTO Members. Last year the EU sent comments on 32 notifications, with main focus on measures notified by Brazil and China.