WORLD TRADE G/TBT/Notif.98.40
30January 1998
ORGANIZATION
(98-0353)
Committee onTechnical Barriers toTrade
NOTIFICATION
Thefollowing notification isbeing circulated inaccordance withArticle 10.6.
1. Member toAgreement notifying: NETHERLANDS
Ifapplicable, name oflocalgovernment involved (Articles 3.2and7.2):
2. Agency responsible: Ministry ofAgriculture, Nature Management andFisheries
Agency orauthority designated tohandle comments regarding thenotification canbe
indicated ifdifferent from above: National enquiry point
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X],2.10.1 [],5.6.2 [],5.7.1 [],other:
4. Products covered (HSorCCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading.
ICSnumbers maybeprovided inaddition, where applicable): Cheese
5. Title, number ofpages andlanguage(s) ofthenotified document: Agricultural Quality
Regulation onCheese
6. Description ofcontent: TheAgricultural Quality Regulation onCheese contains
conditions under which producers (from theNetherlands, from ECmember States and
third countries) mayutilize abrand name established bythisRegulation forcheese
described inthisRegulation. Theconditions foruseofthebrand name pertain tothe
rawmaterials used andthequality thereof. There arealsorestrictions ontheuseof
additives. Lastly, afewrequirements aretobemetbythefinal product andthe
packaging thereof.
7. Objective andrationale, including thenature ofurgent problems where applicable:
Based ontheAgricultural Quality Act,anextensive system wassetupin1982 regarding
thequality ofcheese. Thekeyaimofthissystem wastopromote thesaleofcheese by
prescribing acompulsory quality level forcheese which applies toallDutch producers.
TheDutch Government hasdecided toconsiderably simplify thissystem, partly because
asystem asdescribed above nolonger fitsinwiththecurrent views onthesharing of
responsibility between theGovernment andindustry. Itis,however, notdesirable to
abolish thisquality system forcheese. Inorder toprovide foraquality system under
public lawwhich tiesinmore with current views onthesharing ofresponsibility
between theGovernment andindustry, thepresent Regulation hasbeendrawn up.The
main differences compared totheprevious Regulation arethatthequality system is
completely optional, whilst theprevious Regulation wascompulsory. Another difference
isthattheproposed Regulation onlyhasaquality system which covers cheese, whilst the
previous Regulation included aquality system formore products, such asprocessed
cheese andcheese powder. Also, theproposed Regulation contains fewer quality
requirements regarding cheese.
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8. Relevant documents:
- Agricultural Quality Act;
- Agricultural Quality Decree onDairy Products.
9. Proposed dateofadoption: 13March 1998
Proposed dateofentry intoforce: 16March 1998
10. Final dateforcomments: 12March 1998
11. Texts available from: National enquiry point [X]oraddress, e-mail andtelefax number
ofother body: