Fears have been expressed that the increasing use of voluntary private standards may exclude small producers in developing countries from global supply chains, marginalizing those most in need of the benefits of international trade. This and other developmental and market access issues will be addressed at an UNCTAD-WTO meeting on 25 June 2007.
UNCTAD and the WTO are organizing an informal information session on private standards, to be held on 25 June 2007 at 10 a.m. at the WTO building. The session is being organized in conjunction with the next meeting of the SPS Committee of the WTO, which has already begun discussing private standards. The UNCTAD Consultative Task Force on Environmental Requirements and Market Access for Developing Countries has prepared country-specific case studies and held several regional workshops on the developmental and market-access impact of voluntary private standards.
Although not legally binding in a regulatory sense, voluntary private standards are, de facto, increasingly becoming mandatory because of the market power of certain large retailers and importers that operate globally. Several of these standards for food, for instance, combine food safety with environmental, health and workers' health and safety requirements, which makes compliance a very tall order for developing-country producers and exporters.
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