Agreement between the European Community and New Zealand on sanitary measures applicable to trade in live animals and animal products.

The objective of this Agreement is to facilitate trade in live animals and animal products between the Community and New Zealand by establishing a mechanism for the recognition of equivalence of sanitary measures maintained by the two Parties consistent with the protection of public and animal health, and to improve communication and cooperation on sanitary measures. This Agreement shall not apply to sanitary measures related to food additives, sanitary stamps, processing aids, flavours, irradiation (ionization), contaminants, transport, chemicals originating from the migration of substances from packaging materials, labelling of foodstuffs, nutritional labelling, medicated feeds and premixes. Nothing in this Agreement or in the Annexes shall limit the rights or obligations of the Parties pursuant to the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization and its Annexes, and in particular the SPS Agreement. Article 15 deals with exchange of information. A joint management committee consisting of representatives of the Parties shall be established, which shall consider any matters relating to the Agreement and shall examine all matters that may arise in relation to its implementation (art. 15). In the Annex are set the rules for responsible authorities, diseases for which regionalization decisions can be taken, regionalization and zoning, guidelines on procedures for conducting an audit, certification, frontier checks and inspection fees and outstanding issues.