When Vietnam joined the WTO, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has been focusing on product quality, food safety, animal and plant disease safety and considers this a particularly important issue.
80% of SPS notifications are related to Vietnam’s agricultural export market
On October 27, the Vietnam SPS Office (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) in conjunction with the Dong Thap Department of Agriculture and Rural Development organized a conference to disseminate regulations and commitments on SPS in the free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Union. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UKVFTA). The conference answered questions about food safety and plant quarantine regulations for businesses, cooperatives, guilds and farmers engaged in agricultural production for export in Dong Thap province.
Mr. Ngo Xuan Nam, Deputy Director of the Vietnam SPS Office (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), said that in the past, agricultural farmers only focused on achieving as high an output as possible, but since 2007 when Vietnam joined the Joining the WTO, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has been focusing on product quality, food safety, animal and plant disease safety and considers this a particularly important issue to protect the health of consumers in the world. and abroad. In addition, exporting and importing agricultural products into a certain country must require agricultural products to always be disease-free to avoid spreading pathogens from one country to another.
Previously, agricultural farmers only focused on achieving as high an output as possible, but since 2007 when Vietnam joined the WTO, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has been focusing on product quality and food safety. . Photo: Le Hoang Vu.
According to Mr. Nam, in recent years, Vietnam has received about 1,000 notices from WTO members announcing many changes to SPS measures to increase disease prevention in the export and import of agricultural products. . Of these, 80% of announcements are related to Vietnam’s agricultural export market. Especially when businesses export agricultural products to markets around the world, when they are warned that they contain returned pesticide residues, the reputation of that business will be affected and they will suffer heavy losses in terms of the cost of having to return them. destroy and further affect the overall brand of Vietnam’s agricultural products.
In the first 6 months of 2023 alone, the EU warned that Vietnam had 31 violations on agricultural exports, most of which were in terms of pesticide residues remaining in agricultural products exceeding the allowed level, compared to 2022. decreased by 24%.
In recent years, Vietnam has received about 1,000 notices from WTO members announcing many changes to SPS measures to increase disease prevention in the export and import of agricultural products. Photo: Le Hoang Vu.
“The objective of SPS measures is to protect the animal and plant health and safety of each Member State, avoiding the creation of unnecessary barriers to trade between Member States,” Mr. Nam affirmed.
According to Nongnghiep.vn
