Defra, UK - Animal health and welfare - International trade

International trade: Office International des Epizooties (OIE)

What is the OIE?

The OIE, also known as the World Organisation for Animal Health, was formed in 1924, and is currently made up of 170 member countries.

The 5 main objectives of the OIE are as follows:

To ensure transparency in the global animal disease situation
To collect, analyse and disseminate veterinary scientific information
To provide expertise and encourage international solidarity in the control of animal diseases
Within its mandate under the WTO SPS Agreement, to safeguard world trade by publishing health standards for international trade in animals and animal products
To improve the legal framework and resources of veterinary services

Further information on the purpose and historical background of the OIE can be found at www.oie.int

Development of International Sanitary Standards

To allow member countries to protect themselves against the introduction of diseases and pathogens, without putting unjustified sanitary measures in place, the OIE develops a set of normative documents. The main documents are:

International Animal Health Code
Manual of Standards for Diagnostic Tests and Vaccines
International Aquatic Animal Health Code
Diagnostic Manual for Aquatic Animal Diseases

These standards are prepared by Specialist Commissions of which there are currently four:

Terrestrial Animal Health Standards Commission (“Code Commission”)*
The Scientific Commission for Animal Diseases (“Scientific Commission”)
The Biological Standards Commission (“Laboratories Commission”)*
Aquatic Animal Health Standards Commission (“Aquatic Animals Commission”)*

The above specialist commissions are also guided by the recommendations of ad hoc groups.

*the draft proposals available for comment on this site will come from these Commissions

In addition to ad hoc working groups, there are three permanent Working Groups of the OIE:

Working Group on Wildlife Diseases
Working Group on Animal Welfare
Working Group on Food Safety

The reports and draft standards produced by the above Commissions and Working Groups are submitted to member countries for review and comment. These draft standards are then revised accordingly and presented to the International Committee at its General Session, held every May, for review and/or adoption. As Chief Veterinary Officer, Debby Reynolds is the official delegate of the UK to the OIE, and as such is a member of the International Committee.

How the UK contributes to work on the draft standards

Although the EU is not recognised as a member of the OIE in its own right, all EU Member States are members of the OIE, and as such the European Commission takes responsibility for coordination of a common Community position which will be presented to the OIE at the General Session each year.

At the General Session, the Member State who holds the Presidency of the EU is responsible for presenting the Community position. As such, Germany will represent the Community position at the General Session in May 2007. Following a proposal by the UK Presidency on OIE working methods, agreed in October 2005, the Presidency will be supported by four other Member States who will take responsibility for representing the Community on different aspects of the Code. Coordination and consultation on the draft standards produced by the OIE takes on a fairly uniform process each year.

Following requests from member countries it was agreed that the process be changed to give member countries more time to examine proposals. The new timetable will apply for work on the Health Code in the run up to the 2007 General Session.

Institution concerned	Activity	Timing
OIE Terrestrial Code and Aquatic Animals Commissions	Develop new/revised text Report circulated to Member Countries for comment	December
OIE Biological Standards Commission	Revise Manual of Standards, and possibly recommendations for Terrestrial Code	September/October
EU Commission Working Group	Draft Community comments on Terrestrial Code and Manual of Standards	January
EU Council Working Group	Agree draft Community comments, sent to OIE	January
OIE Terrestrial Code and Aquatic Animals Commission	Develop new/revised text Consider Member Countries comments Report circulated to Member Countries	March
OIE Biological Standards Commission	Revise Manual of Standards Consider Member Country comments Possibly recommendations for Terrestrial Code	March
EU Commission Working Group	Draft Community comments on Terrestrial Code and Manual of Standards	April
EU Council Working Group	Agree final Community comments Formal agreement at COREPER and Agriculture Council	April
OIE General Session	Member Countries present final comments Adopt new Code and Standards text	May

Guidelines for comment on the draft standards

All interested parties are welcome to comment on any of the documents posted below. However, timing of our input in order to influence the EU position is all important, and as such, any comments received after the deadline set out along side the reports of each Commission, shall not be considered for inclusion. Once the Community position has been agreed at Council Working Group it will not be possible to amend.

All comments received by the appointed deadline will be considered, however, it is important to note that our points will not always necessarily be taken on board in the final EU position. A link to the final Community position will also be posted below, when it has been published.

When providing comments it is important to follow these instructions:

Identify clearly the specific text you are commenting on i.e. Chapter 3.1.1 Avian Influenza.
State your position, and provide a clear justification for it.
Provide alternative wording for how the text in the standard should appear (this is the most important step as we need to be as constructive as possible when discussing our position with EU colleagues).

Comments should be submitted by email to: ahwicu@defra.gsi.gov.uk

Draft standards for comment

Any comments submitted will be considered for the next Commission meeting in March 2007.

Comments of the Community on the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code:
- Section 1 (2.31 MB - Warning: this is a large file)
- Section 2 (1.69 MB - Warning: this is a large file)
- Section 3 (3.16 MB - Warning: this is a large file)
- Section 4 (688 KB) - Warning: this is a large file)

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