Overview of the WTO and SPS Agreements

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Overview of the WTO and SPS Agreements

• Gretchen H. Stanton
• Senior Counsellor
• Agriculture and Commodities Division

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Location Geneva, Switzerland Established
1 January 1995    Membership 153 countries
(July 2008) Budget 182m Swiss francs,
2007 Secretariat staff 650 Head Pascal Lamy
(director-general)
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WTO Members 2008(153)
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What is the WTO?

• Negotiate trade rules
• Implement trade agreements
• Resolve trade disputes
• Review national trade policies

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The basic principles

• No discrimination
• Most favoured nation principle (MFN)
• National treatment principle
• Predictability
• Respect of tariff bindings (goods and services)
• Transparency (notification, TPR)
• Freer trade (suppression of barriers through
  negotiations)
• Tariff reductions
• Prohibition of using quantitative restrictions
  (quotas)

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The structure
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Overall, import weighted tariff on industrial
products
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tariffs
?
1947
2007
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Non-tariff measures
Trade-related intellectual Property rights
Technical barriers to trade
Subsidies
Quantitative restrictions
Sanitary and phytosanitary measures
Government purchase
Trade in
services
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Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade

• It applies to all goods ....
• technical regulations (mandatory)
• standards (voluntary)
• conformity assessment procedures

TBT
SPS
But its provisions do not apply to sanitary or
phytosanitary (SPS) measures
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Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and
Phytosanitary Measures
The right to protect human, animal or plant life
or health
Avoiding unnecessary barriers to trade
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SPS Agreement - Basic RightArticle 2.1
Members have the right to take sanitary and
phytosanitary measures necessary for the
protection of human, animal or plant life or
health, provided that such measures are not
inconsistent with the provisions of this
Agreement
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SPS MeasuresDefinition - Annex A
A measure taken to protect
Human or risks arising from additives, animal
health contaminants, toxins or
disease organisms in food, drink,
feedstuff
Human life plant- or animal-carried diseases
Animal or pests, diseases, disease-causing plant
life organisms
A country other damage caused by entry,
establishment or spread of pests
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SPS measures laws, decrees, regulations
including

• end product criteria
• processes and production methods
• testing, inspection, certification approval
  procedures, etc.
• quarantine treatments
• animal transport
• packaging and labelling requirements directly
  related to food safety

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Key Provisions of the SPS Agreement

• Non-discrimination
• Scientific justification
• harmonization
• risk assessment
• consistency
• least trade-restrictiveness
• Equivalence
• Regionalization
• Transparency
• Technical assistance/special treatment
• Control, inspection and approval procedures

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Non-discriminationArticle 2.3

• No unjustifiable discrimination
• between Members with similar conditions
• between own territory and other Members

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Scientific justification Article 2.2
based on scientific principles
Members shall ensure that any SPS measure is
applied only to the extent necessary to protect
human, animal or plant life or health (least
trade restrictive)
not maintained without sufficient scientific
evidence
except as provided for in Article 5.7
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Scientific Justification Articles 3 5
Measures must be based on
Risk assessment
OR
International standards
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Scientific justification HarmonizationArticle 3
Codex Joint FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius
Commission OIE World Organization for Animal
Health IPPC International Plant Protection
Convention (FAO)
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Scientific justification Risk AssessmentArticle
5.1

• Members shall ensure that their SPS measures are
  based on
• an assessment, as appropriate, of the risks to
  human, animal or plant life or health,
• taking into account risk assessment techniques
  developed by the relevant international
  organizations.

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Scientific justification ConsistencyArticle 5.5

• Members shall

avoid arbitrary distinctions
in appropriate level of SPS protection (ALOP)
considered in different situations
if distinctions result in discrimination or
disguised restrictions on trade
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Scientific justification Least trade
restrictiveArticle 5.6

• Once have determined the NEED for
• an SPS measure
• AND
• Have determined the LEVEL of protection needed
• must select
• Least-trade restrictive measure
• (technically and economically feasible)
• to achieve level of health protection

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Scientific justification Exception Provisional
measuresArticle 5.7

• Members may provisionally adopt SPS measures
• when relevant scientific information is
  insufficient
• on the basis of available information
• In such circumstances, Members shall
• seeks to obtain additional information to assess
  risk
• review the measure within a reasonable period of
  time

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EquivalenceArticle 4
If the exporting country objectively demonstrates
that its measures achieve the ALOP of the
importing country

• Members shall

accept SPS measures of other Members as
equivalent
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Pest- or disease-free areas Article 6
(Regionalization)
Members shall ensure that their SPS measures are
adapted o the SPS characteristics of an
area
all or parts of several countries
all of a country
part of a country
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TransparencyArticle 7 Annex B
establish an Enquiry Point AND designate a
Notification Authority
Members shall
notify other Members of new or changed SPS
regulations when
no international standard exists OR the new
regulation is different than the international
standard
regulation may have significant effect on trade
AND
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Special Differential Treatment and Technical
Assistance Articles 9 10

• Members...
• ...shall take account of the special needs of
  developing countries
• ...should accord longer time frames for
  compliance
• ...agree to facilitate provision of Technical
  Assistance