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Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
- The basic goals of the SPS Agreement
- (a) Recognise the sovereign right of Members to provide the level
of health protection they deem appropriate; and;
- (b) Ensure that SPS measures do not represent unnecessary, arbitrary,
scientifically unjustifiable, or disguised restrictions on international
trade.
- Measures should be scientifically justifed and should be applied
only to the extent necessary to protect health.
- Protection vs. Protectionism.
- SPS measures: definiton
- SPS measure is any measure applied:
(a) to protect animal or plant life or health within the territory
of the Member from risks arising from the entry, establishment or
spread of pests, diseases, disease-carrying organisms or disease-causing
organisms;
(b) to protect human or animal life or health within the territory
of the Member from risks arising from additives, contaminants, toxins
or disease-causing organisms in foods, beverages or feedstuffs;
(c) to protect human life or health within the territory of the
Member from risks arising from diseases carried by animals, plants
or products thereof, or from the entry, establishment or spread
of pests; or
(d) to prevent or limit other damage within the territory of the
Member from the entry, establishment or spread of pests.
- SPS and TBT measures
- The TBT Agreement covers all technical requirements, voluntary
standards and the procedures to ensure that these are met (energy-saving
devices, labelling of cigarettes).
Under the SPS Agreement, measures may be imposed only to the extent
necessary to protect life or health, on the basis of scientific
information. However, the TBT Agreement permits the introduction
of TBT regulations to meet a variety of legitimate objectives, including
national security, the prevention of deceptive practices, protection
of human health or safety or the environment.
- Food labelling
Health warnings, use, dosage — SPS
Label’s position, lettering, composition, nutrient content, quality
— TBT
Fruit
Treatment of imported fruit to prevent pests spreading — SPS
Quality, grading and labelling of imported fruit — TBT
- Scientific justification
- Article 2 of the SPS Agreement stresses that Members have the
right to adopt SPS measures to achieve their self-determined health
protection level. But only if the measuers:
(a) are applied only to the extent necessary to protect life or
health;
(b) are based on scientific principles and not maintained without
sufficient scientific evidence (except emergency or provisional
measures); and
(c) do not unjustifiably discriminate between national and foreign,
or among foreign sources of supply.
Members have two options to show that their measures are based on
science. They may either:
(1) base their measures on international standards; or
(2) base their measures on scientific risk assessment.
- Harmonization — Basing measures on international standards
- Risk Assessment
- Risk Assessment shall take into account
(a) the potential damage in terms of loss of production or sales
in the event of the entry, establishment or spread of a pest or
disease;
(b) the costs of control or eradication in the territory of the
importing Member; and
(c) the relative cost-effectiveness of alternative approaches to
limiting risks.
- In the case of food-related risk, it is sufficient to evaluate
the potential for adverse effects. In the case of pest or disease
risk, one must evaluate the likelihood of entry, establishment or
spread according to the SPS measures which might be applied, and
the associated potential biological and economic consequences.
- Provisional measures
- Provisional measure may be imposed only in a situation where relevant
scientific information is insufficient.
- Equivalence of the SPS measures of an exporting Member
- Example — Dairy Products and Foot and Mouth Disease.
- Regionalization — Adapting measures to regional conditions
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