On International Legal Regulations Of The Food Safety Responsibility

With food trade amount soaring in recent years, food safety has become a great concern worldwide. Increasing number of food safety accidents took place globally have brought international food safety responsibility under the spotlight. At present, major law regulations applied to food safety issue internationally include the SPS protocol, the TBT protocol under WTO law frame. Yet all these present regulations have their own defect that is hard to make up. Therefore, there is still no systematic law regulation on food safety issue that applies effectively worldwide.Today, with the fast upgrades of technology, the definition of food, food safety and food safety responsibility also need to be changed and enriched. This brings out the idea of "international food responsibility". It refers to the obligations that a country should take during food production, processing, storage, transferring, sells and consumption, as well as its price to pay for not taking such responsibilities. As the idea of "international food safety responsibility" gradually evolves with the development of international food trade as well as food safety accidents happening worldwide, it is different in its area of application and range of responsibilities compared to other food safety responsibilities.Nowadays, food safety is not only the basis for keeping good development on the food industry, but it is also an important guarantee in food exports. Thus, food safety accidents would bring many harmful effects such as financial loss, food trade barriers and disputes etc. The WTO has long been calling for a free international trade, and thus has made law regulations in areas that may affect international food safety responsibility, such as the SPS protocol, the TBT protocol and the DSB restrictive measures. The SPS protocol gives WTO members the right to take sanitary and phytosanitary measures to protect the life and health of humans and plants, but the formulation and implementation of these necessary measures must follow the basic principles of coherence, scientific, appropriate level of protection. The TBT protocol requires members to take the necessary measures must base on the International standards and the principle developed by the International Organization for Standardization, which avoiding creating unnecessary obstacles to international trade and reducing the negative impact of technical barriers to trade on international trade. The DBS would take sanctions against the members with mandatory and exclusivity who cause damage to other countries or obstruct the free trade by violating the SPS protocol and the TBT protocol. But these regulations are still vague and not pragmatic in certain areas. It is necessary to overcome these shortcomings and problems to find a way out of the legal regulation of the food safety responsibilities, giving full play to the positive role of the International Law, eliminating the negative impact.Since China joined the WTO in2001to2009, when the country carried out its Food Safety Law, China has made recognizable progress in setting up law regulations on food safety as well as an effective development on international food trade. Yet undeniable defects still exist in China’s present regulatory system. In order to better incorporate with international food safety responsibility, China should effectively improve it food safety system by innovating monitoring systems and risk assessment system, establishing food safety funds, etc.