EU-EAC MARKUP Policy Brief #3: European Union Standards to be Considered in Harmonisation of EA Standards for Selected Agricultural Export Products

It reveals that certain EU standards of the MARKUP priority commodities are more stringent than the respective Codex standards.

The policy brief identifies EU requirements for pesticide residues, mycotoxins, heavy metals, extraction solvents, food additives, flavor control, fruit content and fruit brix that differ with the respective Codex requirements for the MARKUP priority commodities. It emphasises the importance of adopting EU requirements in EA standards of the MARKUP priority commodities where possible.

The policy brief recommends carrying out careful risk and achievability assessments before adopting EU requirements into East African standards and advices EAC Partner States and the EAC Secretariat to strengthen the capacity for risk assessment and data generation to support EA standards development and harmonisation. The Policy Brief #3 can be downloaded here