World Trade Organization agreements: a framework for trade in animals and animal products

Abstract

This paper will provide an overview of the World Trade Organization's agreements on trade in animals and animal products and of the standards developed by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) for the same purpose. Together, these form an international framework for trade in animals and animal products, which is supplemented by the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement). In this paper, the authors introduce the main provisions of the SPS Agreement, the role of the OIE international standards, the importance of science and the work of the SPS Committee. The authors also explore the relevance of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade and the Trade Facilitation Agreement. KeywordsAgreement on Technical Barriers to Trade -Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) -International standards -Technical barriers to trade -Trade -Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) -Trade in animals and animal products -World Organisation of Animal Health (OIE).

International regulatory cooperation: contribution of the OIE and the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and SPS Committee

“…Harmonisation can be described as the consideration of international standards in the development and revision of a WTO Member' s regulation. This promotes regulatory convergence, while preserving the Member' s flexibility to regulate domestically (14), in order to achieve its appropriate level of sanitary and phytosanitary protection or acceptable level of risk (6). The SPS Agreement encourages Members to base their SPS measures on international standards, guidelines or recommendations.…”

“…The SPS Agreement seeks to strike a balance between the right of Members to protect animal, plant and human life and health, on the one hand, and to avoid unnecessary barriers to trade, on the other. It enshrines general WTO principles (6), such as transparency (7) and non-discrimination, as well as science-based principles that apply specifically to sanitary and phytosanitary measures, such as regionalisation (8) and equivalence (9), or the way in which these measures are regulated internationally, such as harmonisation (10). This paper explores the principle of harmonisation, and examines the ways in which the WTO and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) jointly contribute to promoting international regulatory cooperation (IRC) among their Members.…”

Facilitating market access: risk assessment, equivalence and regionalisation provisions in the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

“…As noted by Wolff and Calderon, the SPS Agreement introduces certain obligations that Members are expected to comply with when they apply sanitary measures (see Wolff and Calderón, this issue [2]). The Agreement seeks to strike a balance between governments' rights to protect animal health (as well as plant health and food safety) and their responsibility to ensure that these measures are not disguised trade restrictions (1).…”