Complying with the clauses of the SPS Agreement: Case of a developing country

Abstract

This paper aims at assessing the implementation of the clauses of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement in a developing country context, namely Mauritius. It describes the regulatory and institutional infrastructure developed to meet new obligations under the SPS Agreement using an inventory approach and in-depth interviews at stakeholder level. The findings indicate that, as a developing country, Mauritius has achieved a reasonable degree of compliance with its commitments towards the WTO. A national accreditation body has been set up. A number of transparency mechanisms have been put in place such as a National Notification Authority, a Sanitary and Phytosanitary Enquiry Point and a national SPS committee involving the public and private sectors for communicating and discussing about SPS measures of trade relevance. Mauritius participated, to different extents, in the WTO SPS committee and in the activities of international standard-setting organisations. It has also updated some SPS-related laws. There have been operational changes in local organisations dealing with SPS issues. However, constraints such as the insufficient capacity to do risk assessment and to carry out equivalence might prevent Mauritius from meeting all its obligations towards the WTO.