Protection of Health in the Light of the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

The "Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures" is one of the main agreement under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which is called SPS. This agreement includes the rules on application of sanitary and phytosanitary measures. The purpose of the first measure is protection of human health and life of animal. The aim of the second is on the protection of the health of the plant. Nevertheless, the ultimate goal is to protect human health and environment. Well-known examples of the measures can be noted as nutrition standards, licensing procedures transportation rules, and quarantine.
Contracting States of the SPS can legitimately take the sanitary and phytosanitary measures to prevent the importation of hazardous materials, which are considered as a threat to health and life of their citizens, into their territory.
Since the purpose of the WTO is to liberalize trade, the imposition of any trade restriction shall be in accordance with related terms and requirements which ignoring them may lead to the responsibility of the State. SPS and its supplements regulate the terms and conditions of resorting to these measures under the main obligation of the contracting States. These terms and conditions are necessity, scientific justification and risk assessment. These requirements are decisive criteria for finding the legitimacy of contracting State’s action.
This article will examine and analyze these three requirements along with the related case law from the perspective of health protection.