Conclusions

The GATT Uruguay Round resulted in comprehensive reductions in tariffs and the establishment of global trade rules for agriculture, including rules to prevent the use of phytosanitary regulations as disguised barriers to trade.

While the traditional GATT framework prior to the Uruguay Round recognized the right of countries to protect themselves from pest and disease risks, it was generally recognized that this exemption from free trade rules was too broad and undisciplined to curb the use of health restrictions as disguised barriers to trade. The expectation was that health-related barriers would proliferate as countries negotiated away traditional forms of commercial protection, such as tariffs and quotas, for their domestic industries.

Consequently, the Uruguay Round negotiations resulted in an agreement on rules that would help prevent governments from using health measures to shield domestic industries from foreign competition (i.e., the SPS Agreement).

The SPS Agreement imposes several legal burdens on importing countries, including the obligation to document and make available the scientific underpinnings of the their sanitary and phytosanitary regulations. Thus far, the most effective elements of the SPS Agreement appear to be those which require governments to make their regulatory processes open to inquiry and the obligations requiring governments to demonstrate the scientific basis for their sanitary and phytosanitary regulations.