[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 235 (Monday, December 8, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64618-64620]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-32053]
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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
Trade Policy Staff Committee; Public Comments on the Triennial
Review of the World Trade Organization Agreement on the Application of
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the ``SPS Agreement'')
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) is requesting written
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public comments with respect to the review by the World Trade
Organization (WTO) Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
(the ``SPS Committee'') of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary
and Phytosanitary Measures (the ``SPS Agreement''). At the conclusion
of the Uruguay Round, the WTO signatories agreed to review the SPS
Agreement three years after its entry into force. The review is
expected to focus on progress in implementing the SPS Agreement,
including provisions relating to the requirement that measures be based
on science and risk assessment, to transparency and notification
procedures, harmonization of international sanitary and phytosanitary
standards, and distinctions between the levels of sanitary and
phytosanitary protection established in different situations. In
particular, the United States will be assessing the contribution that
implementation of the SPS Agreement makes to the reduction of
unjustified barriers to agricultural trade, while preserving the United
States' ability to protect human, animal and plant life and health.
Comments received will be considered by the Executive Branch in
formulating U.S. positions and objectives relating both to the scope of
the review and to the specific issues to be considered by the SPS
Committee during the review process.
DATES: Public comments are due by noon, January 9, 1998.
ADDRESSES: Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, 600 17th Street,
N.W., Washington, D.C. 20508.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
John Ellis, Director for Sanitary and Phytosanitary Affairs, Office of
WTO and Multilateral Affairs, USTR, (202-395-3063).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Chairman of the TPSC invites written
comments from the public on issues to be address in the course of the
review by the WTO SPS Committee of the WTO SPS Agreement. The review
will begin at the tenth meeting of the SPS Committee, scheduled for
March 15-16, 1998 in Geneva, and will be on the Committee's agenda for
the three other SPS Committee meetings scheduled in 1998, to take place
in June, September and November.
Background
During the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, a
primary U.S. negotiating objective was to obtain substantial
commitments for liberalization of international agricultural trade. The
resulting WTO Agreement on Agriculture, which requires the elimination
of many non-tariff barriers and the phased reduction of tariffs on
agricultural products, is providing significant new market access
opportunities for U.S. agricultural exports.
The United States was aware during the Uruguay Round that
unjustified sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures have often
restricted U.S. agricultural exports, even after tariffs or other non-
tariff barriers have been reduced or eliminated. To address this
problem, the SPS Agreement was negotiated to ensure that WTO members
would not impose protectionist trade barriers disguised as SPS
measures. The importance of the SPS Agreement to agricultural trade is
reflected in Article 14 of the Agreement on Agriculture, which
emphasizes that WTO members have agreed to give effect to the SPS
Agreement.
The SPS Agreement reflects a careful balance of rights and
obligations. The Agreement safeguards WTO members' rights to adopt and
implement regulations to protect human, animal and plant life or health
(including food safety and environmental measures), and to establish
the level of protection of life and health they deem to be appropriate.
The United States has a strong interest in preserving these rights,
which ensure the ability to maintain the U.S. standards of public
health and environmental protection.
At the same time, the SPS Agreement establishes obligations
designed to ensure that an SPS measure is in fact intended to protect
against the risk asserted, rather than to serve as a disguised trade
barrier. In particular, the Agreement requires that a measure adopted
to protect human, animal and plant life and health be based on science
and a risk assessment, and that it be no more restrictive than is
necessary to achieve the intended level of human, animal or plant
health protection.
The same balance is sought in the SPS Agreement's provisions
relating to international sanitary and phytosanitary standards,
guidelines and recommendations. Recognizing that the harmonization of
international standards may contribute both to improved protection of
human, animal and plant life and health and to the removal of
unnecessary trade barriers, the Agreement calls for each WTO member to
use relevant international standards as a basis for establishing its
SPS measures, subject to other provisions of the Agreement. At the same
time, the Agreement makes clear that it does not require ``downward
harmonization,'' and that no WTO member is required to adopt an
international standard if doing so would result in a lower level of
human, animal or plant health protection than that government has
determined to be appropriate.
In the SPS Committee, the United States has pushed aggressively for
full and effective implementation of WTO members' commitments under the
SPS Agreement. For example, the United States has provided strong
leadership in promoting implementation of the Agreement's transparency
and notification provisions, in order to ensure effective surveillance
of WTO members' SPS measures. Members' notifications of new SPS
measures and other important information are now available on the WTO's
internet home page (http://www.wto.org). The SPS Agreement's
notification procedures, which provide an opportunity for the United
States to comment on other WTO members' draft SPS measures in advance,
have proven to be increasingly useful in identifying potential trade
problems and facilitating the resolution of differences before trade is
actually affected.
In recent years, the United States has successfully resolved a
number of bilateral trade problems associated with the application of
SPS measures in key overseas markets. In these negotiations, reference
to the requirements of the SPS Agreement has been an important factor
in U.S. trading partners' decisions to eliminate or modify
scientifically unjustified SPS measures. The United States has also
made active use of the procedures of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body
(DSB) to push for the removal of scientifically unjustified SPS
measures which have a major impact on U.S. exports.
Persons submitting written comments on the review of the SPS
Agreement should provide a statement, in twenty copies, by noon,
January 9, 1998, to Gloria Blue, Executive Secretary, TPSC, Office of
the U.S. Trade Representative, Room 503, 600 17th Street, NW.,
Washington, DC 20508. Non-confidential information received will be
available for public inspection by appointment in the USTR Reading
Room, Room 101, Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon and 1:00
p.m. to 4:00 p.m. For an appointment call Brenda Webb on 202-395-6186.
Business confidential information will be subject to the requirements
of 15 CFR 2003.6. Any business confidential material must be clearly
marked as such on the cover letter or page and each succeeding page,
and must be
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accompanied by a non-confidential summary thereof.
Frederick L. Montgomery,
Chairman, Trade Policy Staff Committee.
[FR Doc. 97-32053 Filed 12-5-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3190-01-M
