Compliance Gap Research Articles

Mind the compliance gap: managing trustworthy partnerships for sustainable development in the European Union's free trade agreements

Recent years have seen intensified interest in the labour and environment provisions in the EU's FTAs. The question has arisen whether the incorporation of 'trade and sustainable development' (TSD) chapters in the EU's FTAs deliver on their promise of using the EU's trade power to effectively promote the protection of the environment and improved working conditions in third countries. In particular, the compliance gap between the TSD provisions and their implementation has come to the forefront of the debate. Concerns have been raised that the EU's'promotional approach' based on dialogue and cooperation is less effective that the 'sanctions-based' approach followed by the US and Canada. This article examines the mechanisms for compliance in the TSD chapters in recent EU FTAs and argues that they hold greater promise for real improvements in labour and environmental standards than a sanctions-based enforcement system. However, it posits that, to be effective, and thereby gain the trust of civil society, the EU's 'promotional' approach must be supported by effective mechanisms for transparency, institutionalised dialogue and accountability.

Coverage of mass drug administration for elimination of lymphatic filariasis in urban Nagpur, Central India: A mixed method study.

Background and Aims:Mass Drug Administration (MDA) coverage remains an important indicator in elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis (LF), especially in context of recent changes in programme strategies in India, such as incorporation of Ivermectin and involvement of urban Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs). This study aimed at assessing the coverage and compliance with MDA of Filariasis as well as exploring perspective of beneficiaries for non-consumption in selected slum area of Nagpur city.Methods:Mixed-method study design comprising of quantitative assessment of MDA coverage, followed by qualitative method to explore the reasons of non-compliance was used in selected slum areas of Nagpur city. Using cluster sampling, 240 households were selected and house-to-house visits were made to interview the eligible participants. In-depth interviews were conducted among selected non-compliant participants.Statistical Analysis:Multivariable logistic regression analysis to identify the factors associated with non-consumption. Thematic analysis was done to obtain the reasons of non-consumption as perceived by the beneficiaries.Results:Among the 1096 individuals studied, distribution and consumption coverage were 55.2% and 48.5%, respectively. Effective supervised consumption was further low (28.9%). Coverage compliance gap (CCG) was 12.1%. Male sex and younger age (2-5 years) were significant socio-demographic determinants of non-consumption. No repeat visit to houses left in first round, fear of side effects, pill burden, poor understanding about the need were important reasons as revealed by qualitative inquiry.Conclusion:Effective pre-campaign awareness, incorporation of context specific drug delivery strategies and strengthening monitoring system are essential for successful MDA implementation.

Mind the compliance gap: managing trustworthy partnerships for sustainable development in the European Union's free trade agreements

Mind the compliance gap: managing trustworthy partnerships for sustainable development in the European Union's free trade agreements

Protecting the Rights of Children with Intersex Conditions from Nonconsensual Gender-Conforming Medical Interventions: The View from Europe.

Nonconsensual gender-conforming interventions on children with intersex conditions have recently come under sharp criticism from human rights authorities within the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the European Union, which have identified these interventions as violating children's rights to bodily integrity, privacy, and protection from violence, torture, and degrading treatment. Responding largely to requests for intervention from nongovernmental organizations, these authorities have called upon nations to reform their legal frameworks, both to prevent these rights violations and to redress them. To date, however, few nations have endeavored to prohibit nonconsensual gender-conforming procedures on children with intersex conditions, and none have enacted significant reforms of their frameworks to redress rights violations. This particular 'compliance gap' between human rights recommendations and law reform stems from a failure of national legal orders to formally recognize the scope of rights that are threatened by nonconsensual gender-conforming interventions-rights that are well-established as part of states' positive obligations to prevent physical and psychological harm to children. This article, therefore, analyzes the nature of the rights at stake and the importance of reporting human rights violations to generate direct calls for reform wherever violations occur. The article further analyzes how developments in Europe may have special significance for legal framework reforms-particularly if they facilitate judicial actions against national authorities through the European Convention of Human Rights, which may serve as a model for litigation elsewhere.

Republic of Poland

This report presents the results of applying the Revenue Administration Gap Analysis Program (RA-GAP) value-added tax (VAT) gap estimation methodology1 to Poland for the period 2010–16. The RA-GAP methodology employs a top-down approach for estimating the potential VAT base, using statistical data from national accounts on value-added generated in each sector. There are two main components to this methodology for estimating the VAT gap: 1) estimate the potential VAT collections for a given period; and 2) determine the accrued VAT collections for that period. The difference between the two values is the VAT gap. RA-GAP provides estimates of the two components of the tax gap: the compliance gap and the policy gap. The compliance gap is the difference between the potential VAT that could have been collected given the current policy framework and actual accrued VAT collections. The policy gap is the difference between the overall tax gap and the compliance gap. To put the level and trends of the compliance gap into context it is also necessary to analyze the level and trends of the overall tax gap and the policy gap.

What the HEC? Physician variation and attainable compliance targets in antiemetic prophylaxis.

74 Background: U.S. National Antiemetic Guidelines recommend upfront triple prophylaxis (NK1 receptor antagonist (RA) + 5HT3 RA + dexamethasone) for patients receiving highly emetogenic chemotherapy (HEC), including carboplatin AUC ≥ 4 per 2017 guidelines. While existing data show gaps in guideline compliance, variation between individual physicians is less studied, and a realistic target compliance rate remains unknown. Methods: In a large electronic health record database (IBM Explorys), we identified HEC courses of therapy initiated from 2012 to 2017. Guideline compliance was defined as triple prophylaxis at chemotherapy initiation. Patient courses for ≥ 7 day cycles of cisplatin or anthracycline + cyclophosphamide (AC), or carboplatin (≥ 14 day cycles as a proxy for AUC ≥ 4) were ascribed to oncologists based on encounter frequency. We then ranked physicians treating ≥ 5 HEC courses and evaluated guideline compliance and individual physician variation. Results: In total, 10,074 HEC courses were identified and attributed to 451 unique physicians. Overall antiemetic guideline compliance with cisplatin and AC averaged 68% and 81% respectively. When ranked by compliance, the top 20% of physicians were 2.5 - 1.5 times as compliant as the bottom 20% (cisplatin 100% vs 40%; AC 100% vs 67%). For cisplatin, 32% of physicians had > 90% compliance; the remaining 68% were evenly distributed from 0 - 90%. For AC, 56% of physicians had > 90% compliance, and another 14% had 80 - 90%; the remaining 30% were evenly distributed. For carboplatin, 62% of physicians had ≤ 10% compliance, and another 17% had 11 - 20%; however, the majority of these data preceded guideline inclusion of carboplatin AUC ≥ 4 as HEC. Rates were independent of course volume per physician. Conclusions: Considerable physician-level variation exists in triple antiemetic prophylaxis guideline adherence for HEC. Hundreds of physicians had > 90% compliance with guidelines, suggesting 90% is a realistic target. However, the majority exhibited substantial gaps in NK1 RA use in HEC, placing patients unnecessarily at risk for CINV. Interventions are needed to bolster triple antiemetic prophylaxis in HEC, perhaps especially for carboplatin.

Compliance gaps and the failed promises of religious freedoms

ABSTRACT Previous research has established the striking disconnect between states’ constitutional promises of religious freedoms and their actual practices for supporting such freedoms. Yet, past research has not fully explained, measured, or tested the extent of why the disconnect occurs for protections of religious freedom. Using the Religion and State Collection (Round 3) and other country level data, we construct two measures for the discrepancy between constitutional promises of religious freedom and the level of restrictions placed on religions. Building on previous research and theory, we argue, that these discrepancies represent a compliance gap, and can be explained through social, economic, governance, and global dimensions. We conclude that although promises of religious freedom signal a commitment to protections, upholding these promises is reliant on the religious economy of the nation (e.g. social pressures) and the specific types of governance used (e.g. free elections and an independent judiciary). Despite the influence of global and economic factors in explanations of other compliance gaps, these were insignificant in understanding why religious freedom compliance gaps emerge.

A basic tool to assess tax administration strength in emerging Europe

AbstractLarge tax compliance gaps, together with the need to generate additional tax revenue have put a premium on tax administration reform in emerging Europe. The key features of an efficient tax administration are well established, but an objective assessment of the relative strengths and weaknesses of tax administrations have been lacking. This paper proposes a simple index of tax administration strength, based on objective indicators reflecting key organizational and operational aspects of revenue administrations relative to international best practice. A diagnostic test is then conducted to assess the performance of the proposed index in its ability to predict variations in tax collection efficiency in emerging Europe.

Mass Drug Administration (MDA) for Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis: Experiences from Nayagarh District of Odisha, India

Background: India has adopted MDA strategy for elimination of lymphatic filariasis since 2004. It requires constant efforts on a nationwide scale particularly in the endemic areas for interruption of transmission of this neglected tropical disease. Aims & Objectives: This study aims to assess the coverage and compliance along with factors affecting compliance regarding MDA implementation in Nayagarh district of Odisha. Material & Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in November 2016 for evaluation of filariasis elimination activities carried out in the district. A pre-designed, pre-tested semi-structured interview schedule as per National Vector Borne Disease control Programme (NVBDCP) guidelines was used. A qualitative component was added to determine the perceptions and attitudes of the study population regarding MDA implementation. Data was analysed using simple proportion and percentages. Results: A total 120 households (90 rural and 30 urban) were surveyed, covering a population of 590. Overall coverage rate of study population was found to be 91.47%. The effective coverage rate was 71.1% (77.8% in rural areas and 48.8% in urban areas). The overall coverage compliance gap was 22.2, being higher in urban than rural areas. Conclusion: There is a felt need for health education activities to increase acceptance among the population coupled with supervised on the spot consumption of DEC for decreasing the coverage compliance gap. The issues regarding compliance need to be addressed for realizing the global target of eliminating lymphatic filariasis by 2020.

Coverage and compliance towards mass drug administration programme against lymphatic filariasis in Vijayapura (Bijapur) district, Karnataka, India

Background: Lymphatic filariasis or elephantiasis is the most debilitating and disfiguring scourge among all diseases. The National Health Policy (2017) has set the goal of elimination of lymphatic filariasis in endemic pockets in India by 2017. The concept of MDA is to approach every individual in the target community and administer annual single dose of anti-filarial drugs. The objectives of the study were to assess the coverage, compliance and causes for noncompliance towards MDA in Vijayapura district and to assess the rates of directly observed treatment, source of information on MDA and incidence of side effects related to MDA Programme.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in one urban and three rural clusters in Vijayapura district of Karnataka. Totally 120 houses were covered with minimum of 30 houses in each of the cluster. Data was collected in a structured proforma by interview technique and entered in Microsoft Excel-2010 and analyzed with SPSS version 22.Results: Out of 120 houses visited in 4 clusters consisting of 398 beneficiaries, the coverage of MDA was 80.3% and 72.5% had consumed the tablets. The coverage compliance gap was 7.8%. 71.7% of the respondents, had awareness regarding elephantiasis. The most common reason quoted by the beneficiaries for not consuming the tablet was lack of information of MDA programme/ Lf (13%) followed by fear of drugs (10%).Conclusions: BCC is the essence of the hour to fulfil the goal of elimination of lymphatic filariasis; there is need for intensive IEC activities addressing the misconceptions among beneficiaries regarding adverse reactions of MDA through mass media, interpersonal communications.

Falls prevention strategies for adult inpatients in a university hospital of São Paulo, Brazil: a best practice implementation project.

The main objective of this project was to reduce the incidence and harm from falls that occur among patients admitted in the acute Internal Medicine Unit and Intensive Care Unit in a public teaching hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. Falls are a challenge for health professionals and healthcare services as they may result in high-impact outcomes for patients, such as functional decline, increase in length of hospital stay, increase in the cost of healthcare services, and death. In an attempt to promote safe care the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the World Alliance for Patient Safety in 2004 that encourages the adoption of best practice to reduce adverse events in healthcare services. The project used the Joanna Briggs Institute Practical Application of Clinical Evidence System (JBI-PACES) and Getting Research into Practice (GRiP) audit tool for promoting change in health practice. A baseline audit was conducted measuring eight best practice criterias, followed by the implementation of target strategies and a follow-up audit. The results of the baseline audit identified large gaps between current practice and overall compliance with best practice. The GRiP module helped identify strategies related to education programs for patients, families and nursing teams, and a falls risk assessment with an accurate tool to address the gaps in compliance. The follow-up audit cycle was satisfactory as all best practice audit criteria showed an improvement as an aggregated result. The project used the audit and feedback strategy to translate evidence into practice. Some of the measured criteria improved to moderate-high compliance with best practice. The results showed that implementation of evidence-based practice leads to an improvement in falls prevention. Future audits are required to sustain improvements.

The international politics of air disasters: lessons for aviation disaster governance from Asia, 2014–2015

Through a qualitative analysis of three air disasters from Asia in recent years—MH370, MH17 and QZ8501—this article investigates the puzzle of how aviation disasters open up a sovereign state’s domestic governance and foreign policy to international questioning within an anarchic international system. This enquiry thereby highlights the gaps in the global governance of aviation, particularly in the areas of safety and recovery in the wake of aviation disasters. Three linked literatures demonstrate this dynamic. First, aligned with the ‘emotional turn’ in international relations, we show that the portrayal of air disasters and grieving next of kin in global media highlights the politics of grief and trauma. Second, aviation disasters surface the politics of disaster diplomacy in the guise of ‘security competition by proxy’ in the recovery process. Third, we emphasize that these shortfalls in domestic governance and international cooperation demonstrated by the attention-grabbing spectacle of aviation disasters consequently underscore important knowledge, norms and compliance gaps in global aviation governance. Aviation disasters and their aftermath thus shine an international spotlight on the state’s domestic governance and foreign policies in these three manners.

International human rights regimes in Latin America: the commitment and compliance gap

Has the international human rights regime made a difference in practice? This article offers a preliminary approach to this question, focusing on Latin America. In particular, the article highlights the tensions between commitment and compliance with international human rights norms in the region. The article demonstrates that Latin-American countries have shown a strong commitment with these norms and with the organs of the universal and Inter-American human rights regimes. The article stresses, however, that high commitment has not been followed by a meaningful improvement in human rights conditions on the ground; therefore showing a clear gap between rights “in principle” and rights “in practice” in the region. The article concludes with an exploratory discussion on the possible causes for this decoupling and suggests future lines of research.

Electronic skins for soft, compact, reversible assembly of wirelessly activated fully soft robots.

Designing softness into robots holds great potential for augmenting robotic compliance in dynamic, unstructured environments. However, despite the body's softness, existing models mostly carry inherent hardness in their driving parts, such as pressure-regulating components and rigid circuit boards. This compliance gap can frequently interfere with the robot motion and makes soft robotic design dependent on rigid assembly of each robot component. We present a skin-like electronic system that enables a class of wirelessly activated fully soft robots whose driving part can be softly, compactly, and reversibly assembled. The proposed system consists of two-part electronic skins (e-skins) that are designed to perform wireless communication of the robot control signal, namely, "wireless inter-skin communication," for untethered, reversible assembly of driving capability. The physical design of each e-skin features minimized inherent hardness in terms of thickness (<1 millimeter), weight (~0.8 gram), and fragmented circuit configuration. The developed e-skin pair can be softly integrated into separate soft body frames (robot and human), wirelessly interact with each other, and then activate and control the robot. The e-skin-integrated robotic design is highly compact and shows that the embedded e-skin can equally share the fine soft motions of the robot frame. Our results also highlight the effectiveness of the wireless inter-skin communication in providing universality for robotic actuation based on reversible assembly.

Power, Mechanisms, and Denunciations: Understanding Compliance with Human Rights in International Relations

The four volumes on human rights norms reviewed here investigate a puzzle introduced by quantitative studies, which shows that the expansion of commitments with human rights does not guarantee compliance with these rights in practice. Going beyond the classical opposition between constructivism and rationalism, the volumes explore the conditions and mechanisms that are likely to close this ‘compliance gap’. This essay starts by reviewing the arguments of the books before focusing on two major themes: compliance mechanisms and international denunciations. It argues that the introduction of ‘reintegrative shaming’ and ‘stigma’ to compliance research may help refine current knowledge on normative change and resistance to change. Betts A and Orchard P (eds) (2014) Implementation and World Politics: How International Norms Change Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Friman HR (2015) The Politics of Leverage in International Relations: Name, Shame, and Sanctions. Basingstoke; New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Hafner-Burton E (2013) Making Human Rights a Reality. Princeton, NJ; Oxford: Princeton University Press. Risse T, Ropp SC, and Sikkink K (eds) (2013) The Persistent Power of Human Rights: From Commitment to Compliance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Managing the delivery of Short Term Mental Health Services to underserviced and/or hard to reach populations

Ours is a collaborative approach to managing the delivery of short term mental health services for targeted populations. Implementing the Whānau Tahi Connected Care Management System (WTCC) to support the management of the Psychological Support Services Programme (PSS) has enabled Central & Eastern Sydney Primary Health Network (CESPHN) to attempt to address some key challenges. Coordination between health professionals involved in managing and delivering the Psychological Support Services (PSS) programme is key to successfully supporting clients to ensure the y do not succumb to falling through the gaps, delays in delivering services, funding and compliance gaps. Stakeholders from CESPHN and service provider organisations worked with Whānau Tahi to develop and implement coordinated processes and a technical solution for managing the seamless delivery of the PSS programme from client referral, admission, delivery of services and discharge. The aim of this change was to have a single point of assessment, centrally manage the referral and admission process, allocate clients to providers from external organisations and standardise processes and data collection. This enabled better access to and timely provision of services to clients, accurate funding and compliance with governance frameworks. The targeted population are those with a diagnosable mild to moderate mental illness who fit into one of the following underserviced populations: Children and Young People (0-25 years); Women experiencing prenatal/postnatal depression; People who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander; People from Culturally or Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds; and People who are at risk of suicide or self harm. Stakeholders involved in the delivery of this programme include GPs and community providers who refer clients, CESPHN who triage and allocate clients to mental health providers for service delivery and Department of Health (DOH) for compliance reporting. Timeline: Implementation of standardised processes and a single technical solution for managing the programme went live in early 2013. CESPHN continue to work closely with Whānau Tahi to implement further enhancements. Highlights: The centrally coordinated single point of assessment referral process allows for clients’ eligibility to be reviewed in a timely manner and to be allocated to mental health professionals by the contracted organisations. The ability for mental health professionals from external organisations to enter details of services provided as they are completed allow CESPHN to track the services delivered near real time and better re-allocate funding where a client no longer needs it. The solution has also provided the ability to report on some PSS data from a single source. Sustainability and transferability: The approach to coordinating the connected care for the PSS programme presented here is being trialled , with further development required by the CESPHN and Whau tahi. Conclusion: A centrally coordinated referral process supported by technology enables programme coordinators to easily review client eligibility, allocate funding which results in timely service provision to the hard to reach and/or underserviced clients of the PSS programme. It is hoped this approach will be applied in additional settings to facilitate the coordination and delivery of services in similar programmes.

Study and Reports on the VAT Gap in the EU-28 Member States: 2018 Final Report

This Study serves as the Final Report for the DG TAXUD TAXUD/2017/DE/329, “Study and Reports on the VAT Gap in the EU-28 Member States”, which is a follow-up to the five reports published between 2013 and 2017. In this Report, the Authors present the new Value Added Tax (VAT) Gap estimates for 2016, as well as updated estimates for 2012-2016. In addition to the analysis of the Compliance Gap, this Report examines the Policy Gap in 2016 as well as the contribution that reduced rates and exemptions made to the theoretical VAT revenue losses. Moreover, the Report contains an econometric analysis of VAT Gap determinants, which is a novelty introduced from this year’s Study. In 2016, most European Union (EU) Member States (MS) saw positive tailwinds with a combined real GDP growth of 2.0 percent. As a result of a growing base and increasing VAT compliance, VAT revenue increased in all MS with three exceptions. Most pronounced is the case of Romania, where VAT revenue decreased in response to reduction of the standard rate by four percentage points. In nominal terms, in 2016, the VAT Gap in EU-28 MS fell below EUR 150 billion and amounted to EUR 147.1 billion. In relative terms, the VAT Gap share of the VAT total tax liability (VTTL) dropped to 12.3 percent from 13.2 percent in 2015, and is the lowest value in the analysed period of 2012-2016. Denoted at the share of GDP, the VAT Gap in 2016 amounted to 0.99% compared to 1.05% in 2015. Of the EU-28, the VAT Gap share decreased in 22 countries and increased in six—namely, Romania, Finland, the UK, Ireland, Estonia, and France. The biggest declines in the VAT Gap—of over five percentage points—occurred in Bulgaria, Latvia, Cyprus, and the Netherlands. The smallest Gaps were observed in Luxembourg (0.85 percent), Sweden (1.08 percent), and Croatia (1.15 percent). The largest Gaps were registered in Romania (35.88 percent), Greece (29.22 percent), and Italy (25.90 percent). Overall, half of EU-28 MS recorded a Gap below 9.9 percent. The Policy Gaps and its components remained stable. The average Policy Gap level was 44.8 percent, out of which 9.95 percentage points are due to the application of various reduced and super-reduced rates (the Rate Gap). Countries with the most flat levels of rates in the EU, according to the Rate Gap, are Denmark (0.93 percent) and Estonia (2.97 percent). The Exemption Gap, or the average share of Ideal Revenue lost due to various exemptions, is, on average, 35 percent in the EU, whereas the Actionable Policy Gap—a combination of the Rate Gap and the Actionable Exemption Gap—is, on average, 16.5 percent of the Notional Ideal Revenue. The econometric analysis can be considered a successful first attempt at inferring the impact of various determinants. Firstly, it can be observed that the productive structure of the economy exerts an impact on the VAT Gap. The share of retailers has the strongest impact on the VAT Gap; however, telecommunications, industry, and art also have a positive impact. Secondly, liquidity constraints and the productive structure of the economy also play a role in determining VAT compliance. The most interesting results have to do with the impact of the variables under the direct control of the tax administration. We show that the impact of the size of the tax administration and the VAT Gap is concave. On the contrary, in the case of IT expenditure, the impact is convex, albeit small, until productivity vanishes when IT expenditure is about 9.8 percent of the total expenditure of the tax administration.

The role of gender in the provision of public goods through tax compliance

The existing experimental literature suggests women are more compliant than men when paying taxes but may free ride more when contributing to public goods. It is unclear which effect dominates when paying for public goods through taxation. Experiments conducted in three European countries and the U.S. are used to investigate this issue. The results suggest that women bear a greater burden of the provision of public goods for the parameters in the experiment. The results indicate the gender gap in compliance is due to differences in both the extensive and intensive margins.

Progress towards elimination of lymphatic filariasis in two districts of Maharashtra: scenario of last five years

Background: Filaria was identified as one of the diseases to be eliminated globally and its global elimination by the year 2020 has been envisaged by World Health Organization (WHO). A large coverage- compliance gap has been found in many MDA programmes in India. Togo is the first sub-Saharan country to have stopped MDAs after prevalence data suggested that LF transmission had been interrupted. The successful Togo program demonstrates that LF elimination can be achieved in countries with limited resources. This study was undertaken to assess the situation of MDA coverage and compliance in two districts of Maharashtra.Methods: This is a community- based cross sectional study carried out in four selected clusters each in Nagpur and Bhandara districts of Maharashtra. Stratified random sampling is adopted for selection of households. In each district, 120 households are surveyed for the purpose of MDA evaluation every year. The coverage calculated in this article is programme coverage.Results: The coverage found in the year 2011 in Nagpur district was 63%, after which it was consistently rising every year. Similarly in Bhandara district, the coverage found was 70% in the year 2010, after which there was a rise every year. But the actual consumption rate was far less when compared to the coverage reported by the drug distributor, or the medical officer (more than 90% compliance is reported every year). Commonest reason for not consuming the drug was fear of side effects of the drug, which they must have experienced in the previous years activity, or seen other persons having side effects.Conclusions: Gradual increase in compliance of drug consumption over the period of five years in both the districts shows good progress towards the path of elimination.

Overcoming the SPS concerns of the Bangladesh fisheries and aquaculture sector

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to address the challenges developing countries face in attempting to balance sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) health and safety measures against concerns about protectionism, illustrated by the impact of trade barriers on the fisheries and aquaculture sector in Bangladesh. The paper then provides recommendations to overcome the effects of these trade barriers.Design/methodology/approachThe author uses a close doctrinal approach for the first three parts of the paper by analysing the provisions of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) SPS Agreement and the effect of those provisions in creating domestic compliance gaps in the Bangladeshi fisheries and aquaculture sector. A qualitative approach is then adopted in suggesting potential reforms and future directions to assist the Bangladeshi fisheries and aquaculture sector overcome SPS trade barrier issues.FindingsTo overcome the market access issues created by SPS trade barriers, Bangladesh and other developing countries require multilateral assistance, accommodation by trading partners and internal reforms. This includes reforming internal governance structures, improving trade participation and negotiation, increasing infrastructure investment and learning from similar countries who have improved their supply chain management.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper will have significant implications by contributing to law and policy reform debates involving international trade law and domestic compliance gaps. It will also assist other developing countries that experience SPS trade barriers to learn from the experience of the Bangladeshi fisheries and aquaculture sector.Practical implicationsThis paper has practical implications by providing recommendations for how Bangladesh can overcome SPS trade barriers and improve its market access. This will help Bangladesh integrate into the global trading system by enhancing its participation in the SPS framework.Social implicationsBy addressing and providing recommendations for the SPS trade barrier challenges faced by Bangladesh fishery and aquaculture sector, this paper provides a framework to improve the economic development and global competitiveness of the industry. This will contribute the gross domestic product growth and help increase the overall living standards of the people involved in the fisheries and aquaculture business in Bangladesh.Originality/valueThis paper is an original work that has not been published elsewhere. It is the first time a paper has dealt with the legal, policy and compliance challenges faced by the fisheries and aquaculture sector in Bangladesh.