Revision Process for Verification Framework

Union for Ethical BioTrade - Standard revision process FINALISED

Amsterdam – April 11, 2012

The Union for Ethical BioTrade is a member of ISEAL Alliance (International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling) and the Ethical BioTrade Standard has been designed in accordance with its requirements as well as those of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

These requirements include the need to periodically review the Standard and ensure wide stakeholder involvement during the review process. In line with these requirements, the UEBT held two rounds of public consultations.

Following a first public consultation phase of the Standard, the UEBT Secretariat developed a revised version in May 2011. Then in July 2011, the UEBT initiated the second phase of the public consultation of this revised standard. This 2nd consultation phase ended on 5th December 2011, following which a 2nd draft of the Ethical BioTrade Standard was developed. This 2nd draft was shared among UEBT members as per the UEBT Standard setting procedure. No members expressed serious concern or objected to the Standard. On April 4th 2012, the UEBT Standard Committee recommended the adoption of the Final Draft Ethical BioTrade Standard to the UEBT Board of Directors who formally approved it on 11th April 2012.

Details of comments received and modifications made in the two consultation phases can be found in this document.

You can find the new version of the Ethical BioTrade Standard here. The Ethical BioTrade Standard is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. The revised Standard is used in all up-coming third party audits. 

We thank you for having taken part in this public consultation. All comments received have been very useful to improve the Ethical BioTrade Standard.

If you have any comments on these documents, please do no hesitate to contact the UEBT Secretariat at the following email address: comments at ethicalbiotrade.org