Laurenza, Eugenia; Carreño, Ignacio --- "Addressing the Solution of SPS and TBT Matters through Trade Negotiations" [2012] ELECD 119; in McMahon, A. Joseph; Desta, Geboye Melaku (eds), "Research Handbook on the WTO Agriculture Agreement" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Research Handbook on the WTO Agriculture Agreement

Editor(s): McMahon, A. Joseph; Desta, Geboye Melaku

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848441163

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: Addressing the Solution of SPS and TBT Matters through Trade Negotiations

Author(s): Laurenza, Eugenia; Carreño, Ignacio

Number of pages: 23

Extract:

7 Addressing the solution of SPS and TBT
matters through trade negotiations
Eugenia Laurenza and Ignacio Carren~o


I. INTRODUCTION
International trade in agricultural products is increasingly being
affected by the adoption and maintenance of regulations, standards
and requirements intended to ensure that food which is imported,
manufactured and consumed is safe; aimed at protecting the health and
life of animals and plants; and directed at the pursuit of important
policy objectives such as, inter alia, human health or safety, animal or
plant life or health, and the environment. Although the objectives that
these measures intend to pursue are, in principle, legitimate, measures
of this kind may result in barriers to trade to the extent that: (i) they
discriminate against imports; and (ii) there are concrete difficulties
associated with complying with such standards. These difficulties may
be increased by the differences in the way in which each importing
country implements the legitimate objectives, and this may
significantly impair the ability of exporters to gain access to third
country markets.
Within the WTO framework, the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT) and, to a greater extent, the Agreement on the
Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement)
and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement)
attempt to regulate the trade-related aspects of such measures. This legal
framework rests, inter alia, on the following pillars: the non-
discrimination and the least-trade restrictive measure principles;
harmonisation of international standards; and transparency. The TBT
Agreement, which covers technical ...