Sanitary and phytosanitary measures chapter summary
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Sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures are regulatory measures applied to protect human, animal or plant life or health. Sanitary and phytosanitary measures can take many forms, such as requiring products to come from a pest- or disease-free area, inspecting products to verify that they meet Canada’s food safety requirements and permitting the use of only certain additives in food. The implementation of SPS measures under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) will facilitate trade in agriculture, fisheries and forestry products in the North American region and deepen cooperation between regulatory authorities.
The modernized SPS chapter reinforces and builds on provisions contained in the original NAFTA and the World Trade Organization (WTO) SPS Agreement. It also reflects the three parties’ extensive trade and regulatory relationship in food safety and animal and plant health. The chapter maintains each party’s sovereign right to take the SPS measures necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health while requiring that such measures be science-based, transparent and not applied in a manner that creates unnecessary barriers to trade.
The chapter includes many new obligations, including on science and risk analysis, how Parties determine the equivalence of SPS measures of another Party with their own and greater predictably in the audit process. It also creates a new mechanism to resolve issues cooperatively and has provisions to enhance compatibility of SPS measures among parties, the first of their kind within North America. The chapter also includes improved procedures for import checks and regionalization, as well as the re-establishment of a three-party SPS Committee.
Technical summary of negotiated outcomes: Sanitary and phytosanitary measures
- Elaborates on provisions of the WTO SPS Agreement and strengthens provisions of the original NAFTA.
- Maintains the parties’ sovereign right to protect human, animal or plant life or health and to establish their individual appropriate level of protection, while also committing to avoid unnecessary barriers to trade.
- Incorporates new obligations on science and risk analysis, and transparency.
- Specifies that when recognizing equivalence of SPS measures, the parties shall take into account the outcomes that the exporting party’s SPS measure achieves.
- Includes detailed commitments on conducting audits to provide for greater predictably in the audit process, particularly with regard to audits of the oversight and control system of an exporting party that an importing party has recognized as equivalent.
- Improves procedures for import checks and regionalization by committing parties to:
- undertake import checks in a location that is convenient for importers and in a manner that safeguards the integrity of the imported good;
- notify the importer within five days, in situations where an import check detects non-compliance, of details of the reasons for the non-compliance; and
- follow a predictable process for the determination of regionalization, with the possibility of deciding in advance the risk management measures that will apply to trade if there is a change in pest or disease status.
- Includes requirements ensuring that certification be reflective of risk.
- Enhances information exchange and cooperation.
- Incorporates new obligations on enhancing compatibility of SPS measures among the parties.
- Maintains an SPS committee to promote the effective implementation of the chapter and technical working groups as needed in areas such as animal health, plant health, food safety, or pesticides.
- Creates a new mechanism to resolve issues cooperatively by government officials and is subject to dispute settlement.
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