Law Commons^™

This chapter assesses the applicable standard of review in sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) disputes with complex factual issues. In particular, the chapter analyzes how the new deferential standard, set out by the Appellate Body (AB) in US/Canada - Continued Suspension of Obligations in the EC – Hormones Dispute, is actually applied in practice (determining reasonableness of risk assessment, not its correctness). To this end, the AB report in Australia – Measures Affecting the Importation of Apples from New Zealand is scrutinized. The conclusion is reached that although the applicable standard of review under the SPS Agreement (particularly under Articles 2.2 …

Although the applicable standard of review under Articles 2.2/5.1 of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) is not de novo, investigation by WTO panels is nevertheless quite intrusive in terms of objectivity and coherence of risk assessment. Moreover, the panel’s review does not end with the final conclusion reached by the WTO Member in its risk assessment; it also extends to the quality of the reasoning employed and the intermediate interferences that led to the conclusion. If a WTO Member relies on expert judgment in its risk assessment, this needs to be sufficiently transparent …

This article analyzes the problem of applicability of the SPS Agreement and its relationship with the TBT Agreement and GATT 1994. In this context, special attention is given to the panel report in EC – Biotech Products. The reason for such an approach is twofold. First, it was the first panel which comprehensively analyzed the conditions of applicability of the SPS Agreement, and second, some parts of its analysis are disappointing and not well reasoned. This article recognizes that the conditions of applicability of the SPS Agreement were conceptualized by the case law very broadly. The author, while accepting parts …

This article analyzes the disciplines established by Article 5.7 of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. The analysis is based both on the text of the SPS Agreement as well as on the existing case law with the special consideration given to the panel’s ruling in EC – Biotech Products. The article criticizes the approach of the case law to the issue of applicability of Article 5.7 as it confuses the applicability with the consistency. The article argues that it is more appropriate to view the SPS Agreement as providing for three mutually exclusive paths of …