Research On The Fifth Article Of The Agreement On The Application Of Sanitary And Phytosanitary Measures

With the improvement of people’s living standard, the issues regarding to foodsafety and health are drawing more and more social attentions, and become the priority ofgovernment regulations. In the international world, many countries are taking SPS(Sanitary and Phytosanitary) measures to ward off the risks, while the trade frictionsgenerated in this process also prevent the development of international business.Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures as aspecialized international agreement for addressing contradictions between health securityand international trade frictions plays an important role in this field.On the basis of realizing the important role the Agreement plays under the currentsituation, this paper has researched and analyzed the fifth article-the core clause of thisAgreement. The second part–the key part of this paper-makes a legal analysis of all theclause of the fifth article, and explains the risk assessment principle, proper protectionlevel and risk prevention principle in details, and finally summarizes the appliedprinciples. Obtain the purpose and meaning of all the clauses of the fifth article, and getto know their rules and requirements by analyzing every Chinese and English clause, andalso study the reports of DBS panels and the report of appellate body concerning thecases of SPS, so as to obtain international legal organizations’ attitudes toward the fiftharticle as well as its applying rules, and provide legal basis for domestic safety andinternational business development; Meanwhile this paper also pays attention to the latestdevelopment of the fifth article in the international society, and deepen our understandingto it. In addition, this paper makes an evaluation for the important conclusions of thecases from the appellate body, hoping the weakness could be addressed in the future.The last part of this article introduces in details the importance of SPS Agreementto which international society attaches. Some typical countries emphasize and apply thefifth article especially, of which European Union emphasizes risk prevention, whileAmerica emphasizes risk assessment and scientific evidences, this paper gives a detailedintroduction to this phenomenon and compares the context of fifth article of the SPSAgreement and the regulations of North America Free Trade Agreement in the field ofsanitary and phytosanitary. The end of the article come to our country, it points out the weakness of this Agreement in the legal status and its regulation operation afteracknowledging its advancement in risk assessment system, international standard, riskprevention, etc, and gives advices for improvement, so as to enhance our capability inprotecting our sanitary and phytosanitary, and promote the development of ourinternational business.