Pretoria - Cabinet has approved South Africa’s ratification of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Annex to the Southern African Development Community’s Protocol on Trade and for it to be submitted to Parliament.
“The SADC Protocol on Trade to which South Africa has acceded serves to promote regional cooperation and integration among member states for trade in goods and services within the region, including agricultural products,” said acting Cabinet spokesperson Phumla Williams on Thursday.
The SADC SPS Annex to the SADC Protocol on Trade provides an enabling framework for SPS cooperation. It also promotes harmonisation of SPS measures based on international standards and guidelines in order to facilitate safe and fair trade of agriculture products in the region.
Sanitary or phytosanitary measures include all relevant laws, decrees, regulations, requirements and procedures including, inter alia, end product criteria; processes and production methods; testing, inspection, certification and approval procedures and packaging and labelling requirements directly related to food safety, among others. - SAnews.gov.za
