Foster, Caroline E. --- "Public Opinion and the Interpretation of the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures" [2009] ELECD 553; in Joseph, Sarah; Kinley, David; Waincymer, Jeff (eds), "The World Trade Organization and Human Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: The World Trade Organization and Human Rights

Editor(s): Joseph, Sarah; Kinley, David; Waincymer, Jeff

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847206619

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: Public Opinion and the Interpretation of the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

Author(s): Foster, Caroline E.

Number of pages: 28

Extract:

11. Public opinion and the interpretation
of the World Trade Organisation's
Agreement on Sanitary and
Phytosanitary Measures
Caroline E. Foster1

1. INTRODUCTION
With the passage of over a decade since the adoption of the World Trade
Organisation (`WTO') Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
(`SPS Agreement'), it is time to examine experience to date in light of the SPS
Agreement's basic rationales. WTO panels and the Appellate Body have grad-
ually established a jurisprudence that consolidates accepted interpretations of
the SPS Agreement's provisions and identifies how its provisions can work
together. This chapter evaluates the state of that jurisprudence and makes
proposals for further developments in the interpretation of the SPS Agreement,
focusing on the troubled question of the role that may permissibly be played
by public opinion in decision-making under the SPS Agreement.
Concluded at the end of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations in 1994,
the SPS Agreement regulates barriers to trade that are adopted to counter sani-
tary and phytosanitary risks by requiring them to be based on science. To the
extent of their overlap, the Agreement provides a more disciplined footing to
the exceptions found in Article XX of the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (`GATT') which allow Contracting Parties to impose barriers to trade in
order to protect human, animal and plant life and health. Under the SPS
Agreement, sanitary and phytosanitary measures (defined as measures to
combat pests, diseases, and additives and contaminants in food) must be
grounded in ...