Introduction

To fully appreciate the obligations and the impact of the rules-based system, one has to go beyond identifying that the WTO is a trade-negotiating body. It is in the detailed provisions of the respective Agreements that one may discern a true glimpse of the potential which trade has for development. In this selected study we opt for a more fundamental approach in assessing the dynamics of trade and economic development by taking a closer look at one such Agreement: the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures – the SPS Agreement. The essence of the SPS Agreement lies in the demands for public health and safety which is a universal need, placed alongside the need to ensure that the protection of public health and safety does not constitute the basis of arbitrary restrictions on trade by national governments. Thus while the importance of public health and safety is acknowledged, the adoption of unfair restrictive trade measures lacking scientific basis is denied.

It is not too difficult to understand the reasoning behind this perspective. Regulating the international market and all trade and economic endeavour carried out therein must be seen to have a positive impact on not only producers, but also on consumers. This is because when a rule of international trade reaches into the domestic environment as they all inevitably do, its only justification must be that it is well balanced against the legitimate aims of the domestic regulations. Thus trade rules are negotiated with the objective of ensuring that the multilateral co-operation under the WTO takes into consideration those essential aspects of societal regulation which are for the common good. On the other hand, domestic trade policies and measures which have not been sufficiently backed by science cannot, riding on the need for public health and safety be allowed to restrict trade, a restriction which may only be a disguised form of protectionism.

This case study provides a more in depth and empirical study of the benefits and challenges which WTO Members face in exercise of their obligations as WTO Members. Particular emphasis will be on developing countries’ capacity to execute their obligations under the Agreement. Our study will be in three broad parts.