Loading...
アイコン

World Trade Organization

チャンネル登録者数 3.99万人

3912 回視聴 ・ 46いいね ・ 2021/05/21

Let's Talk Food Safety

The WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the "SPS Agreement") allows governments to define product requirements for imported food to protect the health of consumers. To avoid that food safety issues are being used as a pretext to shield producers from foreign competition, governments are encouraged to base their trade-restrictive measures on science and to follow internationally recognized food safety standards.

Christiane Wolff and Arti Gobind Daswani from the Agriculture and Commodities Division of the WTO explain how the SPS Agreement is applied to address trade-related issues early on and ease tensions before they develop into full-blown trade conflicts.

Learn more:
www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/sps_e/sps_e.htm

If you want to go deeper on this topic, here are a few additional explanations and reading suggestions:

A little jargon busting first: SPS is short for “sanitary and phytosanitary” which is one way of designating everything that is related to food safety and animal and plant health.

• Why does international trade need an SPS Agreement?
Sanitary and phytosanitary measures are necessary to ensure health protection, but they can also be a powerful tool to restrict trade. That’s why WTO member governments developed rules on how these measures can be used. The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the “SPS Agreement”) tries to sort out requirements that are driven by genuine health concerns from those that are potentially excuses for protectionism, or applied in a way that restricts trade more than necessary.

Countries have to make sure that their SPS measures are based on scientific evidence of risk or follow internationally recognized standards developed by these international organizations:
o the joint FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex) for food safety
o the World Organization for Animal Health, formerly known as the Office International des Epizooties (OIE)
o the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) which is based in FAO, for plant health.

Whenever a government is proposing a new regulation or modifying an existing one that may affect international trade, it must notify the WTO Secretariat, which then circulates the notification to other WTO member governments. Normally, changes have to be announced in advance so that other countries have a chance to comment, and so exporters can adapt to the new requirements.

• What kind of issues do SPS measures typically deal with?
o additives in food or drink
o contaminants in food or drink
o poisonous substances in food or drink
o residues of veterinary drugs or pesticides in food or drink
o certification: food safety, animal or plant health
o processing methods with implications for food safety
o labelling requirements directly related to food safety
o plant/animal quarantine
o declaring areas free from pests or disease
o preventing disease or pests spreading to a country

• Who benefits from the SPS Agreement?
o Consumers in all countries benefit. The SPS Agreement helps ensure the safety of their food, and the availability of a wide range of choices.

o Developing countries benefit because the rules apply irrespective of their political and economic strength or technological capacity, and they can use the SPS Agreement as a tool to gain market access for their exports.

o Exporters of agricultural products in all countries benefit from the elimination of unjustified barriers to their products.

o Importers of food and other agricultural products also benefit from the greater certainty of border measures.

• What does the SPS Committee do?
The Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the “SPS Committee”) provides a forum for governments to discuss food safety and animal and plant health measures which affect trade. The SPS Committee, like other WTO committees, is open to all WTO member countries. Governments may send whichever delegates they believe appropriate to participate in the meetings of the SPS Committee, and many send their food safety authorities or veterinary or plant health officials. The SPS Committee usually holds three regular meetings each year.

Only a fraction of all notified food safety, plant and animal health measures have so far led to a queries or opposition by WTO member governments. These measures are treated as “Specific Trade Concerns” (STCs) in the SPS Committee. The involved parties are encouraged to engage in consultations and privilege a cooperative and science-based approach to settle their concerns.

Special thanks to:
• Christiane Wolff, Counsellor, Agriculture and Commodities Division, WTO
• Arti Gobind Daswani, Economic Affairs Officer, Agriculture and Commodities Division, WTO
• Antonio Pais, Master Chef at the WTO cafeteria, for demonstrating how to prepare a delicious Pad Thai
• You, for sharing

コメント

コメントを取得中...

コントロール
設定

使用したサーバー: direct