Article 3 of the SPS Agreement encourages Members to base their measures on international standards, guidelines and recommendations, where they exist. This facilitates harmonization, or the establishment, recognition and application of common SPS measures by different Members. By harmonizing SPS measures with international standards, food safety and animal and plant health protection can be achieved without unduly restricting international trade.

The SPS Agreement recognizes in particular three international standard-setting bodies (the three sister organizations). For food safety measures, standards, guidelines and recommendations are established by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Similarly, the Office Internationale des Epizooties addresses animal health measures, and the Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention sets norms for plant health measures. It should be noted that the SPS Agreement makes no legal distinction between the “standards”, “guidelines” and “recommendations” of these three organizations. All three types of norms have equal status under the SPS Agreement (see “Clarification of References to Codex Texts”, G/SPS/W/86/Rev.1).

Measures based on international standards, guidelines or recommendations developed by the three sister organizations are presumed to be consistent with the SPS Agreement, and Members who base their measures on them can be confident of their compliance with the SPS Agreement. International standards are sometimes described as providing a “safe harbour” for governments. Clearly, however, Members have the right to challenge all SPS measures, and particularly if they believe that the claim of being based on an international standard is ill founded.

The process of harmonization is monitored by the SPS Committee in cooperation with the three sister organizations. The process, outlined in WTO document G/SPS/11, allows Members to identify trade-significant problems related to the use or non-use of relevant international standards, guidelines or recommendations. The three sister organizations respond to the issues raised. The WTO Secretariat produces an annual summary report on the monitoring process. The most recent annual report (in the G/SPS/ series) can be downloaded from the WTO website (Click here for instructions).

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