SPS Measures under the WTO: Effects on seed trade in Asia-II

SPS Measures under the WTO: Effects on seed trade in Asia-II

By: Syed Wajid H. Pirzada
E-mail: wajidpirzada@hotmail.com

Scientific basis for SPS measures and risk analysis

An SPS measure has the potential to restrict international trade. For example, with seeds its use is restricted under the Agreement, as it can only be used to the extent necessary for protecting life/health of consumers, animals or plants. Moreover, it should be "based on scientific principles and should not be maintained without sufficient (scientific) evidence".

The SPS Agreement stipulates that the intent of any SPS measure should be that of protecting human, animal and plant life/health, and that any SPS measure must be based on an actual assessment of the risks it poses to human, animal and plant life/health or to a country. Risk assessment methods developed by relevant international organisations serve as guide to that end. For example, these include:

• Available scientific evidence.

• Relevant processes and production methods.

• Relevant inspection, sampling and testing procedures.

• Prevalence of specific diseases or pests.

• The existence of pest- or disease-free areas.

• Relevant ecological and environmental conditions and quarantine or other regulatory measures.

Relevant economic factors, such as:

(a) Potential damage in terms of loss of production or sales in the event of the entry, establishment or becoming part of a disease ecology, or the spread of a pest or disease;

(b) The costs of controlling or eradicating an outbreak, and the programmes needed to manage such responses:

(c) The costs associated with the loss of national/international markets; and

(d) The relative cost-effectiveness of alternative (SPS) measures.

Internationally agreed approaches to risk analysis

These approaches prescribe a process involving:

• The identification and characterisation of risks, e.g., pests and pathogens, likely to be associated with any imported product.

• An assessment of the probability of any hazard becoming established in the importing countries' animal or plant populations and an assessment of the impact in the face of such an eventuality.

• The development and selection of available risk management options, such as quarantine treatment, that best suits the SPS requirements of an importing country.

• The development of quarantine procedures that help put a risk management option in place.

An import risk analysis must take an objective approach to the risks presented and the risk management options, and it should follow internationally agreed methods wherever appropriate. The choice of any SPS measures must have a clear and direct relationship to the assessed risk. To this end, an importing country must, if requested, make known what factors it took into consideration, the assessment procedures used and the level of risk it determined to be acceptable.

The SPS Agreement builds on, and reaffirms GATT Article XXb, referred to above, to restrict the use of SPS measures in an unjustified way in order to protect trade, while acknowledging the sovereign right of a WTO member to provide the level of health protection it deems appropriate, that is, the appropriate level of sanitary or phytosanitary protection.

International SPS standards

As stated above, the SPS Agreement encourages the adoption of international standards, guidelines and recommendations by maintaining that harmonised measures are presumed to be consistent with the relevant parts of the SPS Agreement and GATT 1994. The international organisations recognised as responsible for establishing these international standards, guidelines and recommendations include the joint Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), WHO and CAC (food safety standards), Office International Des Epizooties (OIE), the International Organisation for Animal Health, and the relevant international and regional organisations operating within the framework of the FAO/International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC).

Although such standards are not binding on WTO members, the SPS Agreement, as stated above, encourages the members to base their SPS measures on international standards, guidelines and recommendations while allowing them to set and maintain higher levels of protection subject to the relevant provisions of the Agreement. In the context of the SPS Agreement, IPPC is the key international Convention related to seed industry business, as it deals with pests and diseases.

IPPC and the SPS Agreement

IPPC is a multilateral treaty deposited with the Director-General of FAO. It is administered through the IPPC secretariat located in FAO. The purpose of the Convention is "international co-operation in controlling pests of plants and plant products and in preventing their international spread, and especially their introduction into endangered areas" (IPPC Preamble).

The relationship of IPPC to the SPS Agreement is established through a reference, made in the SPS Agreement, to IPPC as international organisation responsible for setting standards and the harmonisation of phytosanitary measures affecting international trade. WTO panels established to review phytosanitary measures thus can seek advice from, or consult the IPPC Secretariat in order to obtain technical information or identify technical experts who may help resolve phytosanitary disputes. Moreover, IPPC is an active observer in the SPS Committee of WTO and routinely interacts with other standard-setting organisations. It is, therefore, important to understand the principles followed and standards set by IPPC.

IPPC principles of plant quarantine as related to international trade

• Sovereignty: With the aim of preventing the introduction of pests requiring quarantine measures into their territories, it is recognised that countries may exercise their sovereign right to use phytosanitary measures to regulate the entry of plant and plant products and other materials capable of harbouring pests.

• Necessity: Countries will institute restrictive measures only where such measures are made necessary by phytosanitary consideration, to prevent the introduction of pests requiring quarantine measures.

• Minimal impact: Phytosanitary measures will be consistent with the pest risk involved, and will represent the least restrictive measures available, which will result in the minimum impediment to the international movement of people, commodities and conveyances.

• Modifications: As conditions change and new facts become available, phytosanitary measures will be modified promptly either by the inclusion of prohibitions, restrictions or requirements necessary for their access or by the removal of those found to be unnecessary.

• Transparency: Countries will publish and disseminate phytosanitary prohibitions, restrictions and requirements and, on request, make available the rationale for such measures.

• Harmonisation: Phytosanitary measures will be based, whenever possible, on international standards and recommendations, developed within the IPPC framework.

• Equivalence: Countries will recognise as being equivalent those phytosanitary measures that are not identical but which have the same effect.

• Dispute settlement: It is preferable that any dispute between two countries regarding phytosanitary measures be resolved at the technical bilateral level. If such a solution cannot be achieved within a reasonable period, further action may be undertaken by means of multilateral settlement system.

• Co-operation: Countries will co-operate in preventing the spread and introduction of pests requiring quarantine, and in promoting measures for their official control.

• Technical authority: Countries will establish/provide an official plant protection organisation.

• Risk analysis: To determine which pests require quarantine, and the strength of the measures to be taken against them, countries will use pest-risk analysis methods based on biological and economic evidence and, wherever possible, follow procedures developed within the IPPC framework.

(To be continued)

(The author is Director/Coordinator WTO, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), Islamabad- For profile of the writer, please click on Our Experts on the top of this page)