The report, submitted to the full membership by a working group of 30 members, contains additional proposed actions that will continue to be discussed.

Also in the committee, Japan urged members not to overreact to radiation leaks at one of its power stations following the recent earthquake and tsunami.

Members continued to comment on each other’s SPS measures, part of the committee’s core function of monitoring how the SPS Agreement is being implemented, with the recurring themes of whether certain measures are based on science or international standards, and whether they are targeted more broadly than at the regions that are the source of genuine risks.

There were a number of questions about the new US food safety law, as well as on issues that have been discussed before such as mad cow disease, avian influenza and residues of ractopamine, which promotes leanness in pigmeat and is banned in some countries and not in others.

Members continued to debate how best to set up a system that would encourage members to make more use of mediation by the chairperson to resolve some of their differences.

And a new SPS Notification Submission System (NSS) went online just before the meeting. It allows members to enter notifications online into the WTO system, part of the on-going efforts to improve the way information is shared among members, strengthening the committee’s monitoring role.