WTO Jurisprudence on TBT, and SPS Agreement, Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures

The WTO has established jurisprudence on the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement and the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement, which are two of the three main agreements that make up the WTO’s legal framework for regulating international trade.

TBT Agreement: The TBT Agreement sets out rules for the development, adoption, and application of technical regulations and standards that can affect international trade. The TBT Agreement seeks to ensure that technical regulations and standards are not used as disguised trade barriers.

WTO jurisprudence on the TBT Agreement has established that measures that are not necessary for achieving a legitimate objective, or that discriminate against foreign products, can be considered as disguised trade barriers and are therefore in violation of the TBT Agreement. The WTO has also clarified that countries have the right to adopt measures to protect human health and safety, but these measures must be based on scientific evidence and must not be more trade-restrictive than necessary.

SPS Agreement: The SPS Agreement sets out rules for the development, adoption, and application of measures to protect human, animal, and plant health from risks arising from the importation of food and agricultural products. The SPS Agreement seeks to ensure that SPS measures are based on scientific evidence and are not more trade-restrictive than necessary.

WTO jurisprudence on the SPS Agreement has established that SPS measures must be based on a risk assessment that takes into account available scientific evidence. The WTO has also clarified that countries have the right to adopt SPS measures to protect human, animal, and plant health, but these measures must be necessary to achieve the desired level of protection and must not be more trade-restrictive than necessary. In addition, the WTO has established that countries have the right to adopt precautionary measures in situations where there is scientific uncertainty about the risks posed by a particular product, but these measures must be based on a thorough risk assessment and must not be arbitrary or discriminatory.