Review on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement

Abstract

Tagesu Abdisa, Milsan Getu and Michael Etana

Fresh food exports represent a growth opportunity due to high demand and fewer trade barriers than traditional exports. Fresh food products are more likely to encounter sanitary and phytosanitary barriers to trade. Ensuring food safety remains a significant challenge in developing and developed countries. This is due to illegal international trade, which allows the rapid transfer of contaminated food from one country to another. Thus, the main objective of this review is to highlight the sanitary and phytosanitary agreements. The Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement was primarily concerned with food safety and animal and plant health regulation, as well as health and international trade in general. World Trade Organization members specify that Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures are classi- fied as sanitary for human and animal life and phytosanitary for plant life and health. A Sanitary and Phytosanitary measure is any measure taken to protect animal or plant life or health within the territory from risks posed by pests, diseases, disease-carrying organisms, or disease-causing organisms; to protect human or animal life or health with- in the territory of the member from risks posed by additives, contaminants, toxins, or disease-causing organisms in foods, beverages, or feedstuffs; or to protect human or animal life or health within the territory of the member from zoonotic diseases. The Sanitary and Phytosanitary Committee reviews virtually all of the provisions of the Agreement at its meetings and documents it with 14 articles, in addition to considering specific trade concerns raised by gov- ernments, with standing agenda items on monitoring the use of international standards, basic rights and obligations, harmonization, transparency, equivalence, regionalization, risk assessment, technical assistance, and special and differential treatment. To generalize that, Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement has a great role in improving food safety and avoiding zoonotic diseases through transboundary trade. However, there are common problems in the agreement because of time and ambiguous effectiveness of agreements. Therefore, the negotiations should be carried out, and further measurements have to be included for all nations to avoid unnecessary trade barriers and illegal exports of animals and plants.

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