WTO | Sanitary and phytosanitary measures


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Sanitary and phytosanitary measures

Problem: How do you ensure that your country’s consumers are being supplied with food that is safe to eat — “safe” by the standards you consider appropriate? And at the same time, how can you ensure that strict health and safety regulations are not being used as an excuse for protecting domestic producers?

An agreement on how governments can apply food safety and animal and plant health measures (sanitary and phytosanitary or SPS measures) sets out the basic rules in the WTO.

> SPS Information Management System: a database of WTO information on SPS
(Notifications, concerns raised, other documents, enquiry points, etc)

EXTERNAL SITE
> International Portal on Food Safety, Animal & Plant Health developed by FAO
> More external sites

Whose international standards?

Which are the relevant standard-setting organizations for the SPS Agreement? An annex to the agreement names:

> the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission: for food

> World Organization for Animal Health

> the FAO’s Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention: for plant health.

> See also FAO and WHO

SPS news back to top

Includes unofficial and less technical summaries of SPS Committee meetings

Introduction back to top

Introduction to WTO rules on sanitary and phytosanitary measures
Links to part of the agriculture section of the WTO guide “Understanding the WTO”
(Click your browser’s “back” button to return to this page.)
“Understanding the SPS Agreement” (text only)
A more technical introduction
Interactive course: Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS)
Interactive course: How to apply the transparency provisions of the SPS Agreement

The mandate back to top

Browse or download the text of the SPS Agreement from the legal texts gateway
WTO Agreements series: SPS — booklet containing the technical explanation (above) and the text of the SPS Agreement
Compilation of all major decisions and documents on the SPS Agreement’s implementation
Find decisions of WTO bodies concerning the SPS Agreement in the Analytical Index — Guide to WTO Law and Practice
Review of the operation and implementation of the Agreement of the application of sanitary and phytosanitary measures. Committee Report of the Second Review adopted in 2005.

The Doha mandate: SPS in the 2001 ministerial decision on implementation

Work on SPS in the WTO, and official documents back to top

Work on this subject is handled by the SPS Committee, which reports to the Goods Council. The work is officially recorded in the committee’s annual reports to the General Council and in summary reports (equivalent to minutes) of the committee’s meetings.

> Search here for SPS documents

Alternatively go to the SPS Information Management System, which offers a wide range of search criteria. (What is SPS-IMS?)

Subscribe here to receive all unrestricted SPS documents by e-mail, usually twice a week, normally only in the original language (English, French or Spanish).

SEE ALSO
> SPS news, above
> Current Chairperson

Members’ transparency toolkit back to top

Notification formats, handbooks, links to members’ SPS websites and other aids for members’ transparency work in SPS

Events, workshops and training back to top

Latest:

SPS/STDF/OECD Workshop on Good Practice in SPS-Related Technical Cooperation, 6 October 2008
> News item
STDF Information Session on Private Standards, 26 June 2008

> More

Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) back to top

A joint initiative of the World Trade Organization, World Health Organization, World Bank, World Organization for Animal Health and Food and Agriculture Organization for enhancing developing countries’ capacity to meet SPS standards. Work includes sharing information on technical cooperation, and finance for projects.

> STDF website
> Medium term strategy (December 2006)