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Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures

A. What do I need to Know About the Priority Issue Area?

SPS measures are technical non-tariff measures that are applied to protect human, animal, or plant life or health from certain specified risks. These measures have a close link to agricultural trade and health in particular. There are four categories of SPS Measures as defined, by the

WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement), namely measures applied to:

Protect human or animal life from risks arising from additives, contaminants, toxins or disease-causing organisms in their food;
Protect human life from plant- or animal-carried diseases;
rotect animal or plant life from pests, diseases, or disease-causing organisms; or
Prevent or limit other damage to a country from the entry, establishment or spread of pests.

Measures that conform to international standards, guidelines, or recommendations are presumed to be consistent with the WTO SPS Agreement. International standards are narrowly defined to include standards developed by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, International Office of Epizootics (now the World Organisation for Animal Health), and International Plant Protection Convention. For example, under the WTO SPS Agreement, international standards for food safety include standards, guidelines and recommendations established by the Codex Alimentarius Commission relating to food additives, veterinary drug and pesticide residues, contaminants, methods of analysis and sampling, and codes and guidelines of hygienic practice (please see here).

To view the WTO SPS agreement, please click here.

B. How is this issue typically incorporated in RTAs?

SPS provisions generally cover the following sub-issues: scope of the measure/s, risk analysis, competent authority and contact points, mutual recognition, equivalence, certification, transparency, emergency measures, cooperation, and committees and technical working groups. Each of these categories of provisions can be explored through the menu below (link to menu with sub-set of issues).

SPS measures are often contained in standalone chapters on SPS. Article 2 of the WTO is widely incorporated into RTAs and could be used as a baseline. References to SPS may appear in other RTA sections as well.

Baseline Option: Article 2 of WTO SPS Agreement

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.
Members shall ensure that any sanitary or phytosanitary measure is applied only to the extent necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health, is based on scientific principles and is not maintained without sufficient scientific evidence, except as provided for in paragraph 7 of Article 5[…].

Explanatory Note

The WTO expressly recognizes the affirmative right of Members to take SPS measures necessary to protect animal, plant or human life. However, this right is not unlimited and is subject to certain limitations, including application of a “necessity test” and requirement that SPS measures be based on scientific principles and evidence. SPS measures also should not result in arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or constitute disguised restrictions to trade.

C. What are the main tradeoffs to consider?

Common tradeoffs include the degree of policy space maintained versus degree to which obligations are absolute, focus on risk assessment versus differentiation based on capacity, emphasis on non-discrimination versus development-focused measures and standards, and degree to which countries are encouraged to align SPS systems and recognize the measures of others as equivalent (and challenges with doing so).

D. What are the sub-issues and how to solve them through legal provisions?

D1. Provisions and options to ensure that SPS Measures are applied in a proportional manner?

D2. Provisions and options to ensure that SPS Measures are applied compatibly with other RTA partners?

D3. Provisions and options to ensure that SPS Measures are applied in a transparency manner?

Text Search in Trade Agreements

Legal TINA has collected the text of all provisions of more than 460 regional and other free trade agreements. Search for any keyword and Legal TINA will show you the full text of provisions that include that keyword. You can also search “by Chapter Title/Article Title” so that Legal TINA will show all the matched chapters and articles which include the keyword in their titles. See list of recommended keywords and/or commonly searched keywords for each issue area HERE

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Use the filters below to narrow down your search by selecting parties of the agreements and/or narrowing the time of entering into force.

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A. Search for a single word

Exact match: searching for a single word, the feature matches the word as it is, the result will show you all provisions including the exact word. For example, searching for “WTO”, the result will show provisions containing “WTO”.
Use '#' for various spelling and space: You can use '#' to enable different spelling variations and spaces. For example, "utili#ation" will show results for either "utilization" or "utilisation."
Other symbols in the searched single word will be ignored. For example, searching for “non-tariff”, or “non+tariff”, or “non*tariff”, the result will be the same as searching for “nontariff” because only “nontariff” will be matched. However, please note that, because of the same reason, if you search for “non-discrimination”, the result will only match “nondiscrimination”. If you want to include provisions containing “non-discrimination” in your search result, you need to use “#” (type “non#discrimination”), or type word combination “non discrimination” (which will also enable partial match for “non” and “discrimination” respectively, see more explanation below for word combination).

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Exact and partial match: The feature matches the whole phrase as it is, including exact and partial matches for each word typed in. For example, searching for "electronic commerce" will show the all the provisions containing “electronic commerce” (exact match), “electronic” (partial match), and “commerce” (partial match)
Exact and partial match: You can use '#' to enable different spelling variations and spaces. For example, "utili#ation" will show results for either "utilization" or "utilisation."
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Use '&' for "and" logic: You can use '&' to match sentences that include both sets of options. For example, "(goods | services | technologies) & (sustainable development | environment)" will match all provisions that contain goods, service, or technologies and sustainable development or environment.

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TINA: Trade Intelligence & Negotiation Adviser Version 1.7.35

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TINA: Trade Intelligence & Negotiation Adviser

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Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures

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