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Agreement Of Health Measures Under The Coordination Of The Food Trade And Public Health

Posted on:2008-05-25Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:J M LiuFull Text:PDF
GTID:1116360212487366Subject:International law
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
People have paid more and more attention to public health issues because of infectious diseases, such as mad cow disease and"SARS"imposing serious threats to the health and life of humans as well as animals and plants. Scientific and technological progress, and economic development have constantly promoted in depth development in international trade, and humans, animals and plants will be facing more challenges to their security. Trade liberalization has made it possible for the public health crisis that has occurred at home to become a world-wide issue immediately. Thus, the grounds for trade restrictions to protect public health, and the formulation and implementation of sanitary and phytosanitary measures, have become an important measure taken by the WTO members. These restrictive measures are in conflict with the member's obligations to Trade liberalization under WTO. The"Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Agreement"(Agreement on the Applications of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures) content covers food safety, animal health and plant health in three major areas of international trade, and public health issues are closely related. The Agreement is intended both to maintain that the WTO members and the government provide the appropriate level of health protection of sovereignty, and also to ensure that this agreement is not abused for protectionist purposes of international trade by creating unnecessary obstacles. Therefore, in order to co-ordinate the trade liberalization agreements with the public health interests, the WTO members are facing various research topics, and that is the purpose of this paper.In this paper, using comparative analysis, case analysis and other methods, more comprehensive analysis of the main provisions of the agreement content is provided. According to its dispute settlement cases the application and development reached to resolve the conflict between trade in food and public health must adhere to the"public health priority in trade,"and seeks to explore the fundamental way to coordinate this conflict. The study was carried out in eight components: theintroduction of this paper examines mainly theoretical and practical significance, the text is divided into six chapters, and ends with the final conclusion of the study. Contents and main points are as follows:The world is vast in area, and is a plant and animal disease complex and is constantly changing. WTO's sanitary and phytosanitary measures are often subject to political and economic development, geographical and climatic environment, and the quality of civic and cultural factors. Created to protect public health and to promote trade liberalization, the"Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Agreement"provides a series of rules, and hopes to establish a multilateral framework of rules and discipline to guide all members of the sanitary and phytosanitary measures in the formulation and implementation. However, as the WTO members'own conditions differ a lot from one another, the implementation of the Agreement is also has a great differences. The Agreement encountered all kinds of difficulties in the implementation process because the developed countries with a high level of technical and economic strength can easily use loopholes in the agreement to avoid sanitary and phytosanitary measures which will protect public health and are necessary as a new trade protection tools to minimize trade restrictions against the agreements in the first place. developing countries, which are limited to the technical aspects of developing economic conditions, and face enormous difficulties to comply with the agreement, are in the most disadvantaged position in international trade; and in scientific and technological development of new foods such as genetically altered foods. Irradiated food will pose a new challenge for the implementation of the Agreement .Food supply. Food safety issues are directly related to public health. The frequent occurrence of food safety has increased the psychological burden on the consumer countries and at the same time has increased demands of for food safety, and has prompted the government to enact stringent food safety regulations and technical standards. Especially in developed countries, importance of attention to the development of end-product quality in the entire process of food production, on one hand, is good for protecting the public health, while on the other hand effectivelyprevents or limits the entry of foreign food to protect the domestic industry development .This is a paper-depth analysis of the positive and negative aspects of the food trade on the public health, the role of GM food trade in the pros and cons of public health and animal diseases. It also covers animal welfare and public health effects of the food trade, and the unique principles such as the scientific basis for agreement. Risk assessment and the principles of international coordination in the field of applied biological sciences difficulties is discussed.Resolving the conflict between trade in food and public health requires in-depth analysis. This paper found that the crux of the conflict lies in the protection of human rights versus economic interests, and that the imbalance in economic and technological development are fundamental reasons for the conflict. However, a legal basis for international co-ordination between trade and public health has been provided by interaction between these two groups, both from the domestic and international perspectives, and, from the international environment treaties of WHO (world Health Organization)and WTO, who have provided a legal basis for international co-ordination between the two groups. The TRIPs Agreement has also provided a development model to be used as reference. This paper argues that the fundamental way to resolve this conflict is for both developing and developed countries to narrow the gap in the economic and technological sectors and follow the path of sustainable development.For International Trade parties, if one side constantly improve the level of protection of health and plant health to protect public health. No doubt, this will cause damage to the other side; the atmosphere will continue to increase friction between the parties. Which needs the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) to resolve and further explain the terms of the agreement. DSB has gained some experiences in dealing with trade disputes relating to public health. This paper analyzes the three main areas covered by the agreement -- involving food safety, animal health and plant health in a classic case the United States and Canada v. the EU beef hormone, Canada v. Australia restricts salmon imports and the United States v. testing of agricultural products in Japan. The analysis revealed that the following factors should be takeninto account when the WTO members decide whether to adopt or maintain each sanitary and phytosanitary measure:●does the measure have a scientific basis?●has a risk assessment been conducted to determine the appropriate level of protection required, and if so, does the measure proposed meet this requirement?●have all the processes used in the assessment of this measure provided the degree of transparency required by the WTO members?If not, the protective measure could trigger international trade disputes and the WTO could be at a disadvantage in any resultant dispute settlement process. In addition, the explanation of the terms of the agreement made by the WTO expert panel and appealing body, has enriched and developed the content of the agreement. The co-ordination of public health protection with the free trade of WTO members reflects the orientation and value of public health priority in trade. To safeguard public health and ensure social stability and order so that everyone can enjoy the fruits of social development is an important part of building a harmonious society. It is of great importance for China to build a harmonious society to comply with the agreement, protect human, animal and plant health, and to pursue trade, economic, ecological and social benefits in terms of sustainable developments. However, the relevant legislation is imperfect, low standards exist, agreements are required for certain time frames and there are also some problems in law enforcement. One insurmountable leading problem in China's export market to developed countries, such as Europe and the United States, is the"high threshold"of return products which were destroyed or suffered frequent easy hand access resulting in the formation of low environmental standards. China also can not stop foreign products, including a"problem"on the import of domestic public health threat. In this paper, Europe and the United States must learn from the experience and improve legislation and efforts to improve the competitiveness of China's export products, and correctly understand and grasp the requirements of the Agreement to determine the appropriate level of sanitary and phytosanitary protection. And they must do this according to international standards sanitary and phytosanitary measures, while activelyparticipating in international standard-setting, and adhering to people-centered handling of the relationship between trade and public health.
Keywords/Search Tags:Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures, Public health, Trade in food, Co-ordination
PDF Full Text Request
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