The Impact of Public Opinion on the Free Trade System: A Case Study of the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

The free trade system is going to reduce the tariffs and remove the non-tariffs barriers that WTO undertakes to do them. Some imported products have problems with regard to safety and health and importing countries are concerned that the entrance of such products to their territories will danger public health. These concerns may be as result of public opinion and concerns that may have a scientific basis or not. Under some conditions, "The Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures" permits the Members to prevent the importation of the products that are dangerous to the public health and safety. This essay seeks to examine to what extent can the Member's public opinion about health and safety of imported products be a reason for taking restrictive-free trade sanitary and phytosanitary Measures? The careful survey of the above-mentioned Agreement shows that there is considerable scope for the Members to rely on the non-scientific evidence such as public opinion to take measures for protecting the life and health of humans and environment.