Private food standards and the World Trade Organization: some legal considerations

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAN WOUTERS ◽  
DYLAN GERAETS
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Standard Setting ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Food Standards ◽  
Private Standards ◽  
The World ◽  
Phytosanitary Measures

AbstractPrivate standards have increasingly become a contentious issue in the multilateral trading system. The ever increasing number of sector-specific standards developed by businesses, in particular in the food market, may have significant implications for developing countries in terms of market access. Some countries see private food standards as a particular form of non-tariff barriers. The World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with non-tariff barriers in the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) and in the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement). This paper examines to what extent these agreements cover private standards, as they were originally intended to regulate standard-setting by public authorities. We find that there is an important difference between the SPS Agreement and the TBT Agreement in that the drafters of the latter realized the importance of the private sector in standard-setting. Finally, we discuss whether a ‘Code of Good Practice for the Preparation, Adoption and Application of Standards’, similar to that under the TBT Agreement, could be adopted under the SPS Agreement.

The Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement of the World Trade Organization: Debunking Its Reliance on Scientific Evidence and Reluctance to Endorse Potential Biotechnology Risks

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Muhammad ISLAM
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
The World ◽  
Precautionary Measures ◽  
Phytosanitary Measures ◽  
Biotech Products

The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) relies on scientific evidence as a conclusive risk assessment criterion, which ignores the inherent limitations of science. This article highlights certain trade-restrictive effects of scientific evidence and comments on the Agreement’s aversions to precautionary measures and the consumer concern of the harmful effects of biotech products that may be necessary to protect public health and biosecurity in many WTO Member States. These measures and concerns have become pressing issues due to surging consumer awareness and vigilance concerning environmental protection and food safety. The Agreement is yet to overcome the weaknesses of its endorsed international standardising bodies, the problematic definition of scientific evidence and treatment of justification for scientific risk assessment methods and the implementation difficulties faced by most developing states. This article analyses these issues under the provisions of the Agreement and the interpretations of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body in disputes involving SPS matters, which fall short of addressing scientific uncertainty surrounding biotech products and their associated risks.

Exploring the Meaning of Trade-Restrictiveness in the WTO

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 451-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
TANIA VOON
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Alternative Measure ◽  
Precise Meaning ◽  
The World ◽  
General Exceptions ◽  
Domestic Products

AbstractTrade-restrictiveness is a familiar concept across various provisions and agreements of the World Trade Organization (WTO), but its precise meaning remains vague. In many WTO disputes, the existence or degree of trade-restrictiveness of a challenged measure is simply assumed or addressed in a few brief sentences. Yet whether a measure is more trade-restrictive than necessary, or more trade-restrictive than a proposed alternative measure, is crucial to the legality of a range of measures currently in place around the world, some under challenge in the WTO. A careful analysis of the existing case law and treaty text – focusing on Article 2.2 of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade and the general exceptions in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 and the General Agreement on Trade in Services – demonstrates that while the existence of discrimination is likely to restrict trade, discrimination is not necessary to establish trade-restrictiveness, which also necessarily arises from direct barriers to market access such as import bans. In the absence of an explicit barrier to imports, a WTO panel is likely to focus on the extent to which a challenged measure negatively affects the competitive opportunities of imported products vis-à-vis domestic products.

Global Public Policy and the World Trade Organization after Shrimp/Turtle and Asbestos

2005 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 253-352
Author(s):  
Maureen Irish
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Trade Policies ◽  
Technical Barriers To Trade ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
The World ◽  
Phytosanitary Measures ◽  
Global Public Policy

SummaryRecent decisions of the Appellate Body of the WTO deal with the interpretation of GATT Article XX, which provides exemptions from trade obligations for important non-trade policies such as the protection of health and the environment. The article discusses those decisions, as well as the balance between trade and non-trade interests in the provisions of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade.

scholarly journals A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THE PLANT HEALTH (PHYTOSANITARY) BILL’S COMPLIANCE WITH THE SALIENT ASPECTS OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) AGREEMENT ON THE APPLICATION OF SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES

Obiter ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clive Vinti
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Competent Authority ◽  
General Rule ◽  
Plant Health ◽  
Phytosanitary Measure ◽  
The World ◽  
Scientific Principles ◽  
Phytosanitary Measures ◽  
Definition Of

This paper juxtaposes the long-mooted Plant Health (Phytosanitary) Bill with its corollary, the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS). Firstly, this paper finds that the Bill creates an ambiguity by including in the definition of “phytosanitary measures”, those “measures, regulations or procedures that limit the economic impact of regulated non-quarantine pests”, without any guidance on the relevant factors to be considered in this regard. Secondly, it is found that the Bill explicitly establishes the requirement that the new phytosanitary regime is based on “scientific principles”. Thirdly, the paper argues that the Bill also establishes the general rule that makes “sufficient science” the basis of any phytosanitary measure in conformity with South Africa’s core obligations under the SPS. Fourthly, this paper finds that the Bill contravenes Article 5.7 of the SPS in that it provides for the implementation of the so-called “emergency and provisional measures” by the competent authority as an exception to the “sufficient science” rule, without any of the necessary safeguards created by Article 5.7. Lastly, the paper finds that the Bill has unduly shifted the primary burden of preventing the entry and establishment of a pest, from the competent authority to the “user of land”.

scholarly journals The Transparency Principle and an Early Warning

2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Trajano Gadret ◽  
Martius Vicente Rodriguez y Rodriguez
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Market Access ◽  
International Organization ◽  
Technical Barriers To Trade ◽  
Technical Requirements ◽  
Global Commerce ◽  
The World ◽  
Regulatory Measures ◽  
Flow Of Information

Transparency is a core principle of the World Trade Organization – WTO, which includes the objective to reduce technical barriers to global commerce. Country members of this international organization presume that the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade provide the exporters greater expectation security related to their investments in manufacturing of goods, on account of containing detailed transparency obligations and for requiring notifications of new regulatory measures. This paper results from bibliography and documentary research on technical barriers to trade and on the Brazilian experience. It examines how the flow of information on foreign technical requirements to be complied by exporters is a question of competitive market access. It is expected to contribute to the analysis and identification of market access difficulties and its qualitative impact on competitiveness. It is also hoped that this study increases the knowledge of how the transparency principle can positively affect exports.

scholarly journals The WTO Seal Products Case: Doctrinal and Normative Confusion

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 323-327
Author(s):  
Joel Trachtman
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Uruguay Round ◽  
Technical Barriers To Trade ◽  
National Treatment ◽  
The World ◽  
Phytosanitary Measures ◽  
Basic Ideas ◽  
Domestic Regulation

The negotiators and drafters of the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization(WTO), which includes the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1947(GATT) and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade(TBT), as well as other subagreements dealing with domestic regulation, such as the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures(SPS), did not do a great job of doctrinal integration among the different documents that comprise the WTO Agreement. To be fair, at the end of the Uruguay Round, the hour was late and they may have felt that the basic ideas were sufficiently clear that it could all be sorted out in litigation. But in several contexts, including within the original GATT, the text of which dates from 1947, they covered the same ground in multiple places, without stating clearly how the different norms relate to one another,and without articulating plausible reasons for different treatment. For example, why is different language used for national treatment in three different places within Article III of GATT, and why is that language different from the language that appearsto have the same purpose in the TBT Agreement or in the SPS Agreement?

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