The Review Of Legitimacy Of Risk Regulating Measures Under The SPS Agreement

The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) was negotiated in the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade and enacted in1994at a time of complex political, economical, social and cultural background. The SPS Agreement strives to strike a balance between permitting governments to take legitimate measures to protect public health and preventing disguised protectionism. It desires the establishment of a multilateral framework of rules and disciplines to guide the development, adoption and enforcement of sanitary and phytosanitary measures in order to minimize their negative effects on trade. Since European Community (EC) challenged Australian measures affecting importation of Salmon, the SPS Agreement drew attention of foreign scholars. While the United States (US) and Canada challenged a European ban on importing of meat and meat products from cattle treated with growth hormones, it has become the focus in this field. Now there are thirty-eight cases concerning the SPS agreement. As the applicable law for DSU, it is important for the members. It is worth studying. And this essay presents a comparative analysis of developments in risk regulation in the US and EC. Between the1960s and mid1980s, a number of US regulations were more stringent, innovative and comprehensive than those adopted by European countries and EC. However this pattern has changed since the mid1980s. This paper describes and explains this shift and finds the system fitting for our country.This paper is made up with four parts. Part one is the introduction. In this part, the writer describes the background of The SPS Agreement enacted, and explains the definition of related term. Part two is the main part of this part. It is divided into four parts. Firstly, the writer analyses the legitimacy review of risk regulation under the SPS Agreement. It explains review principles of the SPS Agreement with related WTO cases, for example the sufficient scientific evident and risk assessment. And it also analyses the relationship between the precautionary principle and the article5.7of the SPS Agreement. Secondly, the writer analyses legislation and judicial practice of US on risk regulation. It explains the shift of risk regulation from stringer to be liberal, and concludes the experience fitting for our country. Thirdly, the writer analyses legislation and judicial practice of EC on risk regulation. Because EC is a union of countries, it is similar with WTO. So we can predict the direction of WTO on risk regulation. The last, the writer analyses the current situation of China on regulation, and finds problems and limitation. As has been said, it puts forward the suggestion to complete the risk management system in China. The third part is the conclusion. The writer points out further the intention of this paper. The writer hoped that this paper can contribute to the development of risk management measures.