Peter Van den Bossche

The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

The protection of human, plant and animal life and health is clearly a duty of all governments within their sovereign sphere. For this purpose, governments have in place regulatory measures aimed at the protection of health1 in their territories against risks contained in food and agricultural products. These health measures can focus on human or animal life or health (sanitary measures) or on plant life or health (phytosanitary measures). Together, they are termed sanitary and phytosanitary (“SPS”) measures and can take many forms. One can think of examples such as regulations setting maximum residue levels for toxins or contaminants,2 approval procedures for additives, quarantine requirements to minimize the spread of pests and diseases, labeling requirements to notify consumers of potentially-harmful foodstuffs (such as allergen-containing products), regulations governing the process or production method whereby the product is made, inspection or certification requirements or outright bans on potentially hazardous products.3 These are all SPS measures.