Scientific Principles of Food Safety in the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

Abstract

Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) is a procedure to protect human, animal or plant life or health set in Article XX(b) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). This Agreement authorizes the government to arrange a policy, but this domestic measure often results in a trade dispute. Therefore, this study enquires to extent measure on the scientific principles in food safety comply with Article XX (b) GATT. In the context, each WTO Member State has two options to show that measures of handling problems related to SPS are based on science, as outlined in Article XX (b) GATT must be measured by scientific principles. First, actions can be based on international standards so that each member state must adopt the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Second, actions can be based on Scientific Risk Assessment. SPS Agreement recognizes the right of states to maintain standards that are more stringent than international standards, or because international standards do not exist. Relevant scientific principles are useful for measurable events that have scientific information beforehand so that the state's policy can be guided by the existing measures. In vice versa, members may temporarily determine sanitary or phytosanitary actions based on available information.
 KEYWORDS: Scientific Principles, Food Safety, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, World Trade Organization.