Ukraine Promotes Livestock Products in Philippine and EU Markets Despite Audit Challenges

According to the press service of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection, the meetings took place during a session of the World Trade Organization’s Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures in Geneva.

In particular, Serhii Tkachuk discussed with the representative of the Philippines the auditing of enterprises and the opening of the country’s market to Ukrainian pork, poultry meat and poultry products.

During a previous visit to the Philippines, the parties agreed to conduct a joint on-site audit of Ukrainian pork and poultry production facilities. Ukraine proposes starting the audit in a hybrid format: conducting the initial stage online and carrying out inspections at the enterprises during a visit of several days by Filipino specialists.

Ukraine will provide maps showing the locations of the enterprises proposed for auditing. They are located approximately 100 km from the western border and far from the front line. The Philippine side will consider the possibility of conducting the audit in the proposed format. A fully remote audit is not currently supported, so the parties are working on an option that would allow inspections to begin and efforts to open the market to continue, the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection noted.

At the same time, the agency is working to secure access for Ukrainian products to the European market and achieve mutual recognition of regionalisation measures concerning animal diseases.

«Regarding exports of hatching eggs and day-old chicks, the European side insists on an on-site audit. Ukraine has proposed considering the possibility of visiting enterprises in Lviv, Volyn or Vinnytsia regions, taking into account the security situation and logistics. Under this approach, inspections could be carried out where they are currently possible, while other enterprises would be granted export approval only after an on-site audit,» the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection explained, adding that EU auditors are currently unable to reach facilities in Dnipropetrovsk region due to the security situation.

The Head of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection emphasised that representatives of the European Commission and the competent authorities of other countries visit Ukraine. This year, representatives of the French agency ANSES and the competent authority of the Netherlands visited Ukraine. The Ukrainian side proposed taking this experience into account when preparing audit missions. The European side agreed to examine the proposed approach further.

The application of regionalisation measures concerning animal diseases was also discussed separately. Ukraine has already initiated this process regarding Newcastle disease in Hungary. The European side is interested in applying this approach to the entire EU. Last year, Ukraine recognised the EU’s regionalisation measures concerning African swine fever.

The meeting also addressed the issue of reciprocity: regionalisation should also be taken into account in relation to Ukraine so that, when trade restrictions are introduced, the animal disease situation in individual regions of the country is considered. The issue of mutual recognition of regionalisation is scheduled for discussion on 27 November.