Photo - Dan Meyers/Unsplash
Mykhailo Bno-Airiian, Vice-President for Global Affairs at MHP, an agricultural organisation in Europe, met with Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the WTO, at the WTO headquarters in Geneva to discuss current challenges in international agricultural trade and the mechanisms for reducing regulatory, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) barriers affecting exporters.
During the meeting, MHP and the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, presented a series of proposals aimed at improving the transparency, predictability, and efficiency of international SPS procedures. The proposals focused on helping Ukrainian exporters access new markets, undergo audits and navigate equivalence procedures.
The central point raised was the length and unpredictability of market access approval procedures, which in some cases remain unresolved for years without formal decisions. These delays are increasingly functioning as indirect trade barriers and negatively impacting global food supply chains.
The development of remote and hybrid audit mechanisms, as well as the need to establish international approaches to digital verification and modern compliance tools in global food trade were also discussed.
In addition, representatives of the Ukrainian business community have proposed launching a regular international platform for high-level dialogue which would bring together the WTO, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), governments and business leaders in the agricultural sector to address global challenges in the field of food security and the modernisation of international trade procedures.
"Today, regulatory and phytosanitary requirements are an integral part of global trade in food products. Compliance with these requirements is of fundamental importance both for consumer safety and for fostering trust between countries and markets. At the same time, we are increasingly seeing situations where certain regulatory or SPS mechanisms are used not only as a tool for quality or safety control, but also as a means of restricting market access for certain products. That is why such approaches also require due attention, transparency and international oversight. Our initiative aims to bring together interested global players to build a constructive dialogue between business and government institutions regarding the application of SPS measures and regulatory procedures in international trade," said Mykhailo Bno-Aіriіan.
