SARAF courses financed by the European Commission Directorate General for external TRADE (DG Trade)

The last few years have seen an increase in the number of Sanitary and Phytosanitary-related trade issues between the EU and exporting Developing Countries. Many of these have been related to residue controls within the exporting country and an increased number of positive interceptions at the point of import into the EU.

In order to address these issues and help exporting countries to improve market access and to meet the standards set out by the European regulation, the European Commission DG-TRADE has been financing training sessions in the field of residues and contaminants controls for laboratory experts originating from Developing Countries. Participants are selected by the European Commission in the countries concerned on the basis of their experience and responsibilities.

The courses are designed so as to improve the participants knowledge of EC regulation in terms of residue analysis in food, residue monitoring plans and the performance of analytical methods within the laboratory. The programme is very comprehensive and is run by some of the most experienced and recognised experts in the field. It also enables participants to build up a network of useful contacts in Europe.

Since 2004, three of these training sessions have already been organised by SARAF for the DG-Trade, which represents a total of 60 persons trained.
In June 2008, another SARAF-DG-Trade Session will be taking place in the National Veterinary School of Nantes, LABERCA, France (2-13 June 2008).