Indecopi will allow imported food and beverages to continue carrying adhesive octagons

The Indecopi’s Specialized Chamber for the Defense of Competition (SDC) declared that the prohibition of the use of stickers for advertising warnings that must be included in food and non-alcoholic beverages, matter of importis a unreasonable non-tariff trade barrier.

With this, it confirmed the decision of the first administrative instance on the aforementioned ban, imposed by the Ministry of Health (Minsa).

In Resolutions No. 0034-2023/SDC-INDECOPI and No. 0035-2023/SDC-INDECOPI of April 4, 2023, issued in two procedures for the elimination of non-tariff trade barriers, the Chamber specified that, although the prohibition it is not illegal, “Minsa should have supported its reasonableness”.

However, the entity led by Minister Rosa Gutiérrez It did not prove that it had identified, before establishing the prohibition, the existence of a problem that the measure sought to solve, nor its suitability.

Neither did Minsa prove -prior to the imposition of the denounced ban- that it had evaluated “the positive and negative impacts that this would generate for the economic agents obliged to comply with it”, as well as for others affected or for competition in the market, nor that the measure generates greater benefits than costs.

Finally, the denounced entity did not adequately support that the measure in question was the least burdensome compared to other alternative measures.

Indecopi: Minsa must change the octagon rule

As is known, the prohibitions were given through Supreme Decree 012-2018-SA (subnumeral 8.3) that approves the Manual of Advertising Warnings, as well as in article 1 of Supreme Decree 018-2021-SA, article 1 of the Decree Supreme Decree 005-2022-SA and article 1 of Supreme Decree 022-2022-SA.

Consequently, the Chamber ordered the inapplication of the non-tariff trade barrier declared unreasonable in favor of the complainants, as well as the third parties involved in the procedure. Finally, said decision-making body recommended that the Minsa order the modification of the administrative provisions that contain the aforementioned barrier.

Indecopi: What is a non-tariff trade barrier?

Non-tariff trade barriers: Demand, requirement, restriction, prohibition or collection, contained in an administrative act or in a provision of general scope that affects the import or export of goods, from or to the national territory.

It should be noted that the norm that requires imported products to have printed octagons, and not adhesives (stickers), had already been postponed several times by the Executive in favor of the industry. The last permit was until June 2023, but Indecopi’s decision ended up tipping the balance.