home > trade topics > sanitary and phytosanitary measures > sps information management system

SANITARY & PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES:

What is the SPS Information Management System?

The SPS Information Management System (SPS IMS) is a comprehensive source for searching for information on sanitary and phytosantary measures — food safety and animal and plant health and safety.

The system allows users to track and obtain information on measures that member governments have notified to the WTO (an obligation for WTO members), specific trade concerns, documents of the WTO's Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Committee, member governments' national enquiry points and their authorities handling notification.

The internal version of the system helps the Secretariat produce official documents such as SPS notifications, and in undertaking faster and more comprehensive analyses and reporting on SPS matters.

The public version of the system, available through the WTO website as of 15 October 2007, is expected to help member governments and other interested people find SPS information according to their specific needs.

For example, the system allows searches to be based on a variety of criteria such as geographic groupings, products codes, comments periods, keywords, etc.

To access the SPS IMS: go to http://spsims.wto.org