Abbreviations

Codex The FAO/WHO Joint Codex Alimentarius Commission

FAO The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

GATT The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, established in 1947. The abbreviation is
used both with reference to the legal text and to the institution

GATT 1994 The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, as revised in 1994, which is part of
the WTO Agreements. GATT 1994 includes the original General Agreement, which is known as
GATT 1947

IPPC The Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention, based in the FAO

OIE The Office International des Epizooties, also known as the World Animal Health
Organization

SPS Sanitary and phytosanitary measures, as defined by the WTO Agreement on the
Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

TBT Technical barriers to trade, as covered by the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to
Trade. References to the previous GATT agreement by the same name are indicated as the
"1979" TBT Agreement

WHO The World Health Organization of the United Nations

WTO The World Trade Organization, established as the successor to the GATT on 1 January
1995

NOTES

1 The original GATT Agreement was revised as part of the Uruguay Round and the revised text,
GATT 1994, constitutes an integral part of the WTO. Its rules continue to apply where not
superseded by a more specific WTO Agreement. For food safety and plant or animal health
measures as defined by the SPS Agreement, the rules of this latter prevail over those of the
GATT 1994. (Return to text)

2 The 1979 TBT Agreement took effect on 1 January 1980. At the end of 1994, before it was
superseded by the WTO TBT Agreement (which is applicable to all WTO Members), the following
were parties to the agreement: Argentina (did not ratify), Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada,
Chile, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Federal Republic, Egypt, the European Community and its
twelve member states (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy,
Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom), Finland, Hong Kong, Hungary,
India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand,
Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Rwanda, Singapore, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland,
Thailand, Tunisia, the United States and Yugoslavia. (Return to text)
3 Codex also develops standards with respect to food quality, nutrition and labelling. These
other standards are not directly relevant to the SPS Agreement, however they are relevant to
the TBT Agreement.