On July 9-11 2019, CLDP held a workshop on “Regulations Development and World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements pertaining to Food Safety,” in cooperation with Egypt’s National Food Safety Authority (NFSA).

Food Safety is a priority issue for Egypt. To ensure food safety for Egyptian consumers and visitors, and to enhance the competitiveness of its exports, NFSA is working to consolidate and update hundreds of regulations, decrees, and laws. CLDP is helping NFSA develop a process for this in line with good regulatory practice and Egypt’s WTO commitments.

The workshop featured an exchange between Egyptian Food Safety experts and experts from the U.S. Office of Budget and Management, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on GRP, the World Trade Organization Agreement (WTO) on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the SPS Agreement) and the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. 

U.S. experts shared how U.S. domestic notice and comment procedures and regulatory impact analyses help with implementation of the WTO Agreements, and facilitate the development of more effective regulations for the protection of health and safety. 

This is the first workshop in a series of engagements CLDP will hold to support the modernization of Food Safety Law in Egypt and to build capacity in the newly-formed Food Safety Authority.