Consultation process
The Union for Ethical BioTrade commissioned ECLAP (Ethical Certification and Labelling Authentication Project) to conduct the global consultation of the Union’s verification framework for natural BioTrade ingredients.
The first draft offered for consultation was based on a pre-draft derived from the UNCTAD BioTrade Principles and Criteria, which was field-tested in Ecuador, Brazil, Peru Colombia and Malawi. The results of these field tests were reported on in an international workshop organised by UNCTAD in Lima, Peru, 10-12 July 2006. During this workshop the standard was revised to produce the 1st draft, which was offered for consultation in the ECLAP facilitated standardisation process described below.
Standards resulting from the ECLAP process are WTO compliant and can be referenced by national authorities in technical regulations. This obliges ECLAP, amongst other things, to ensure that WTO enquiry points (usually ISO national members) are notified at the beginning of the process. As well as WTO enquiry points other stakeholder networks such as International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling (ISEAL) Alliance were notified. The consultation periods applied to the Union’s standard were as follows:
- 30 August to 1 November 2006: 1st draft consultation process (60 days)
- 23 November to 22 April 2007: 2nd draft consultation process (150 days)
- 23 July to 10 September 2007: validation process of the 3rd draft (48 days).
The ECLAP consultation process is web-based, but during the two consultation phases, various meetings were held to give participants an additional platform to comment on the verification framework for Ethical BioTrade.
On 10 September 2007 the verification framework was approved by the participants in the consultation process with an approval rate of 89.6%.
Click here to download a report of the consultation process. A full explanation of ECL Space Standards Development practice is available on: www.eclspace.org.