The Law (Reg.No. 0868) creates a requirement that ‘agricultural products brought into the Customs territory of Ukraine are subject to obligatory Certification (apart from raw products. imported exclusively for the purpose of manufacture of commodities subject to obligatory Certification), etc.
The President of Ukraine considers that the Law ‘On Amendments to Several Laws of Ukraine (appertaining to Quality of Imported Agricultural Products)´ cannot be signed, since Ukrainian Legislation does not suggest obligatory Certification of home-produced agricultural products, therefore a demand for Certification of agricultural products brought into the Customs territory of Ukraine is not in line with International Legislation, including that of The WTO.
On analysis of the Proposals submitted by The President of Ukraine, the Committee considers that foodstuffs manufactured in Ukraine, agricultural products being part thereof, must, in line with current Legislation, be deemed safe and suitable for consumption, be labelled appropriately and fulfil the Hygiene and Technical Regulations. The Hygiene regulations cover the obligatory safety parameters of the final product, and include Certification procedures. Furthermore, as The People's Deputies noted, obligatory Certification is also required for the sale of agricultural products. Stalls at agricultural food markets are only provided against submission of a Certificate confirming the suitability of products for human consumption (vegetable food requiring a relevant Suitability Certificate issued by the State Veterinary Examination Laboratory; and animal food a Suitability Certificate issued by a Veterinary Inspector (for each carcass, or as the case may be, a consignment of poultry/rabbit/small game carcasses with confirmed suitability for human consumption).
Therefore, Committee Members feel that the Law does not violate the requirements of The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to the effect that commodities, originating in the territory of any Party and brought into the territory of another Party, shall be accorded the same favourable treatment as that accorded to similar commodities of National origin, under all Laws and Rules, as mentioned in the Presidential Proposals. The Committee members consider that since agricultural products manufactured within Ukraine are subject to obligatory Certification, the same treatment should be accorded to those products brought into Ukrainian territory.
According to Committee members, implementation of the changes envisaged by the Law will create no overlap of functions related to fulfilling State Control and Supervision of the safety of foodstuffs. These functions are fulfilled pursuant to the Law 'On Safety and Quality of Foodstuffs' with regard to foodstuffs (agricultural products including); and 'On Veterinary Medicine', with regards to facilities (commodities, capacities, veterinary medicine tools, animal care tools, related facilities, etc) within the scope of this Law.