Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS)

How do you ensure your country's consumers are being supplied with food that is safe to eat — “safe” by the standards you consider appropriate? And how can you ensure that strict health and safety regulations are not being used as an excuse for protecting domestic producers? The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures sets out the basic rules on food safety and animal and plant health standards that governments are required to follow. Together with the Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement, it seeks to identify how to meet the need to apply standards while avoiding disguised protectionism.

The SPS Agreement allows WTO members to set their own standards on food safety and animal and plant health. But these standards must be based on science, applied only to the extent necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health, and not arbitrarily or unjustifiably discriminate between countries where identical or similar conditions prevail.