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According to Article 2 (1) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement): “Members have the right to take sanitary and phytosanitary measures necessary for the protection of human, animal or plant life or health, provided that such measures are not inconsistent with the provisions of this Agreement.” As such, one can not deny that the multilateral trade system offers important guarantees for states that are looking to protect specific Non-Trade Concerns (NTCs) by granting them the capacity to impose trade restrictive measures for reaching the non-economic objectives stated in the above-mentioned Article and for the protection of the citizens of a given society. Yet, the same provision made sure to also include additional guarantees protecting this time the rights of the other member states looking to export their products. For instance, Article 2(3) of the SPS Agreement states the following: “Members shall ensure that their sanitary and phytosanitary measures do not arbitrarily or unjustifiably discriminate between Members where identical or similar conditions prevail, including between their own territory and that of other Members. Sanitary and phytosanitary measures shall not be applied in a manner which would constitute a disguised restriction on international trade.” As such, again the multilateral trade system made sure to create a balance between the right of the countries to trade and export products without having to deal with trade restrictive measures and the right of each state to adopt specific regulations that aim at the protection of certain values in particular the protection of human, animal or plant life or health. In the Chapter “Health Protection Measures as Barriers to EU Exports to China in the Framework of the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures”, the author Denis Prevost have examined the ways through which the SPS Agreement was applied in the context of international trade in agri-food products. Thus, the author analyzed whether the provisions of the SPS Agreement succeeded in creating a much needed balance between the trade in agri-food products and health measures imposed out of fear that such products might lead to the diffusion of health problems such as “the spread of insect pests hosted by imported fruit or vegetables, the transfer of infectious animal diseases carried by imported animals or animal products” and so on. In this regard, it was revealed that the current problems have evolved and are actually changing with the development of the agri-food industry. Thus, the risks associated with these products currently are much greater than before due to the nature of the products that are being exported and which have never been exported before as a result of the absence of the necessary technologies and knowledge to preserve the specific product until it reaches its destination. For these reasons, it is becoming very hard to balance the competing values mentioned above as it is not easy to assess whether a particular agri-food product constitutes a health risk or not.
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