overall supply chain (agricultural inputs, production, primary processing, transport, and wholesale and retail markets). Some countries have tried to solve coordination problems by merging the various services into a single agency. After recent changes, the United States has only one border inspection agency (the Department of Homeland Security). China has one organization responsible for inspection and market access policies (the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine). And other countries have only a single agency for food safety.11 No solution is perfect—a single agency may struggle to acquire the necessary competence in policymaking, data collection, standard setting, risk management, and control over domestic production and markets. Having a single quarantine agency on the border gives some advantages in efficiency and in cooperation with customs and other border agencies. But these advantages may be reduced by additional coordination issues and by strife among SPS agencies behind the border. The collaborative border management model, discussed in chapter 2, offers some hope of overcoming such obstacles without a disruptive process of organizational amalgamation (see also chapter 12). SPS agencies and the private sector. A particular challenge in modernizing border clearance for agricultural and food products—especially in tier 1, but increasingly in tier 2—is the extensive use of private sector certification and traceability of goods through the supply chain. Such certification and traceability requires much administrative work, so it would be best for the private sector if the required information were integrated in formats that could also be used for SPS, customs, and other agencies. The same information could then be used for other private sector administrative requirements—for example, in transport and logistics service providers and in financial institutions. Several countries are making efforts to develop such public-private data models to increase competitiveness and promote trade.
Sanitary and phytosanitary measures and border management
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The international framework and support for modernization
Customs modernization is strategically important for SPS agencies. As discussed in chapter 11, many 270
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international organizations (such as the World Customs Organization) have produced strategy and guidance documents for customs modernization. In addition, some donor agencies have helped to modernize customs in regional cooperation and economic integration projects. Within SPS agencies, however, there is little awareness of these international efforts at customs modernization. Nor is there any similar international drive to modernize SPS agencies. Although the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business has recommendations for national single windows that cover all agencies with border functions, no international organization seems to pursue interagency border cooperation. The World Customs Organization deals only with customs agencies and has no projects with other border agencies (though its good practice recommendations call for cooperation among such agencies). The international framework for SPS comprises the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the International Plant Protection Convention, and OIE. Th is framework differs from the international customs framework, despite some similarities. The most important role of the international SPS framework is to set standards, as mandated by the WTO in its SPS Agreement. That mandate has led to efforts at increasing the number of international science based standards. The constituencies of the three standard setting organizations within member states—food safety authorities for the Codex Alimentarius Commission, national plant protection organizations for the International Plant Protection Convention, and veterinary organizations for OIE—are all mainly technical in their expertise and mandate. While OIE is a membership organization similar to the World Customs Organization, the Codex Alimentarius Commission is formally a cooperative arrangement between the World Health Organization and the FAO, located in the FAO. The International Plant Protection Convention is a convention deposited with and facilitated by the FAO. All three have limited resources. Work on good practices and training for food safety, plant health, and animal health depends mainly on the FAO and donor funding and, to a lesser extent, on the World Health Organization and OIE.