Eurasia Partnership Foundation (EPF), through its European Integration program, is conducting a series of roundtables to facilitate the creation of the appropriate conditions and policies for launching negotiations on a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) with the EU as part of the new Eastern Partnership initiative. The third consecutive roundtable on DCFTA with EU: Food Safety/SPS Measures was held on December 14th at the Sheraton Metechi Palace, Tbilisi, Georgia.
The roundtable focused on the lack of food safety standards and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) controls, which disallows Georgian products on the EU market because of Georgia’s underdeveloped food producers’ traceability and market surveillance system. The roundtable provided stakeholders the opportunity to discuss how Georgia’s food safety strategy should be developed and trade potential can better be utilized with regard to the EU. For your information, an Overview of EU Food Safety Requirements presented at the event by Matti Lampi, Food Safety Expert, GRM International is available at www.eugbc.net - News.
The food safety legislation is still pending enactment and it does not seem likely to be enacted in the nearest future. Because this is an important issue for the general public, EPF believes there should be broad public discussion of food safety and food security policies.
EPF’s roundtable brought together representatives of the European Commission Delegation, European Union and Eastern Partnership member states diplomatic missions, the Georgian government, parliament and civil society organizations, trade unions and business associations to discuss these topics.
EPF’s next roundtable will be dedicated to other non-tariff barriers to trade, namely, intellectual property rights and competition regulations. The recommendations adopted at the forums will be disseminated via EUGBC press release.
fasdfsd
