Standards in South-South Trade and Opportunities for Advancing the Sustainability Agenda

When: Wednesday, November 30th to Thursday, December 1st, 2011

Where: Washington DC in the World Bank Building

The enhanced South-South economic integration leads to growing interest in regional harmonization and equivalence among trade standards. In order to judge the role of standards in South-South trade regarding their potential development benefit, the conference will draw a detailed picture, taking the diversity of products traded and the spatial heterogeneity of trade flow into account, and explore the related impacts, potentials, and limitations of standards. A focus will be put on the drivers of standardization and harmonization, co-regulation in the timber sector, and the specific perspective of small and medium enterprises.

The Trade Standards Practitioners Network (TSPN) is an international network of multilateral agencies, bilateral organizations, research institutes, NGOs, and other practitioners in the field of sustainability standards. Bringing together the know-how of all members, our mission is to better enable developing countries to take advantage of and participate more effectively in standard-based markets.

The conference, together with the member meeting, is the major annual event of the Network. It will not only guarantee for versatile professional discussion on the South-South trade topic; it also provides the opportunity to personally connect with representatives from diverse stakeholders in the standards field from all over the world.

For registration, please use the form at the TSPN 2011 Conference web page http://www.tradestandards.org/en/Article.299.aspx .

Please add your name to the file name and send it to info@tradestandards.org until the end of October.

There is no participation fee.

Download the call for registration: Invitation_TSPN Conference 2011_South-South Trade

Dutch food & feed industry buys 85,000 tons of first responsibly produced soy

The Dutch food and feed industry has bought the first batch of soy produced according to the principles of the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS). This first ever market uptake of 85,000 tons serves as an important example for businesses worldwide, who can now also begin to purchase responsibly produced soy.
Read more: RTRS Press release & Unilever press release
General information on the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) can be found on the RTRS website www.responsiblesoy.org.
The development of the standard was supported by the GIZ Programme for Social and Environmental Standards