SPS Agreement Principles

Regionalization

Under the SPS Agreement, countries are committed to adapting their import requirements to the health conditions of the specific area or region where a plant or animal commodity originates. This is the concept of regionalization, or the idea of recognizing areas or regions which present a low pest or disease risk and allowing trade in animal or plant commodities from those area

Plant quarantine officials generally do not use the term "regionalization," referring instead to the concept of "pest free areas." However, this is the same concept. Under the SPS Agreement, a region (or pest free area) may be all of a country, part of a country, or all or parts of several countries.

Regionalization presents a departure from past norms where countries tended to determine health status or disease condition on a whole country basis. The concept of regionalization recognizes that pest and disease conditions may vary across a country as a result of ecological, environmental, and quarantine differences. The concept of regionalization follows from the basic premise that regulatory measures must be based on scientific principles.

Hence, countries must be prepared to consider scientific evidence which may demonstrate the existence of a pest or disease free area within an otherwise infested country. The burden of demonstrating a pest or disease free area rests with the exporting country. The importing country's obligation is to be clear about the administrative and risk assessment procedures which would be used to evaluate free area requests.