WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

It recognises the right of countries to take SPS. However, these should be applied only to the extent necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health and should not arbitrarily or unjustifiably discriminate between Members where identical or similar conditions prevail.

The WTO SPS Committee oversees the implementation of the WTO Agreement on SPS. The Committee also provides a platform for countries to consult on issues related to the implementation of the Agreement. Transparency of SPS measures adopted by member states is a major activity of the Committee as stipulated in the Agreement. Therefore, the Committee has developed a notification system where all members are required to notify new measures, which are circulated to all members. Selected SPS notifications of relevance to Namibia can be accessed here.

The WTO SPS Agreement can be downloaded here. The ‘SPS Series’ further contains the text of the Agreement and explanations to help understand the Agreement.