Demanding perfection: private food standards and the SPS Agreement

Tracey Epps

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511760471.005

4 - Demanding perfection: private food standards and the SPS Agreement

from PART II - WTO treaty interpretation: implications and consequences

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2011

Susy Frankel

Tracey Epps

Edited by

Meredith Kolsky Lewis

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Susy Frankel: Affiliation:
Victoria University of Wellington
Meredith Kolsky Lewis: Affiliation:
Victoria University of Wellington

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Summary

Introduction

In a June 2005 meeting of the WTO's Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the SPS Committee), St Vincent and the Grenadines and Jamaica voiced concern about difficulties exporting bananas due to strict safety and quality standards imposed by British supermarkets. With other countries, they raised the issue again at meetings in October 2006 and June 2007.

These producer countries' concerns are driven by an increasing trend for private retailers in developed countries to require adherence from their suppliers with, inter alia, food safety standards that are more stringent than official government regulations. The countries in question have argued that, under the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement), governments are responsible for standards set by their private sectors. However, this argument is contentious and there is no supporting precedent for the complaining countries' position. This chapter examines whether the SPS Agreement covers private sector standards. It concludes that it does not and considers some of the implications of this conclusion. Private standards potentially undermine the SPS Agreement's objectives, impacting negatively on the international trading system and causing difficulties for developing countries. Conversely, they provide significant benefits for the private sector.

Section II describes the use of private standards in the global agrifood system. Section III examines the SPS Agreement's objectives and rules and concludes that they are not applicable to private food standards.

Type: Chapter
Information: International Economic Law and National Autonomy , pp. 73 - 98

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511760471.005 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2010

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4 - Demanding perfection: private food standards and the SPS Agreement

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