On 18 October 2013 the World Trade Organisation (WTO) announced a record number of concerns raised on food safety, animal-plant health measures. It issued the following media statement: The WTO committee dealing with food safety and animal and plant health heard a record number of specific trade concerns — 11 new, 12 old and one under “other business” — but was unable to agree on a mediation procedure designed to avoid legal disputes when it met on 16–17 October 2013. The specific concerns covered a variety of import measures affecting trade in products from fruit and meat to seafood and swallows’ nests, with actions ranging from import bans and port closures to the use of testing laboratories and outsourced certification. The WTO’s 159 members, meeting as the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures committee, also heard that 34 measures were now resolved and 10 more were partly resolved either because some among a group of countries considered the issues to be resolved, or because some concerns among a broader set of issues had been settled. These numbers emerged via a notification from the EU and information from the Secretariat, after the committee started to clean up a growing backlog of concerns that had been raised in the committee, without any recent follow up. The EU’s notification (G/SPS/GEN/1269) listed nine resolved cases it had originally raised but had only now reported settled, one dating back to May 1996. But the committee failed to agree on a way to make it easier for countries to use the chairperson’s mediation services for problems they had about each other’s measures and to avoid bringing legal disputes against each other. They were unable to agree on a draft procedure because of an objection from India (details below). The committee also remained divided on a working definition for private standards, despite China and New Zealand producing a compromise draft which bridged their own substantial differences. The two-day meeting also heard the latest information from members on new laws and regulations (US and Canada), whey protein contamination (New Zealand), eliminating the use of methyl bromide, a fumigation pesticide now being phased out around the world because it damages ozone in the atmosphere (Indonesia) and measures to deal with contaminated water at the Fukushima nuclear power station (Japan). Delegates also heard that current negotiations on “trade facilitation”, a Doha Round issue being discussed in preparation for the December Bali Ministerial Conference could affect SPS because among the topics discussed is importing countries requiring products to be inspected before they are exported. The Secretariat encouraged SPS experts in this committee to work with their colleagues negotiating trade facilitation — broadly streamlining procedures at ports and in customs.