APEC is organizing a 2 day-workshop on food safety systems equivalence aimed at: (i) generating exchange of views, increasing knowledge and discussing the two approaches of determination of equivalence; (ii)

identifying costs, benefits, strategies, challenges and best practices from APEC economies; and (iii) elaborating a set of recommendations for cooperation among APEC economies for the development and implementation of food safety system equivalence approach. The workshop beneficiaries are government officials from sanitary and phytosanitary authorities/ministries, researchers, academics, food safety experts and other stakeholders such as food industry representatives. I will present on the SPS Agreement, in particular on equivalence for trade facilitation and its relation with multilateral trade agreements (SPS and TBT). An overview of the provisions on equivalence in the SPS Agreement and guidelines adopted by the SPS Committee will be provided.