• Introduction
• Problems faced
• International assistance

Introduction 

In principle, the SPS Agreement should facilitate South-North trade, but in reality this is dependent on countries’ ability to participate effectively in the Agreement.  Another issue in the WTO’s committees is the extent to which Northern countries have complied with commitments vis a vis technical assistance and the recognition of developing countries’ special and differential circumstances as enshrined in the WTO. 
 

Problems faced

In practice, SPS measures create many problems for developing country exporters.  There is a gulf between their international rights and capacity to enforce and utilise these rights.  Developing countries are ‘are not well-positioned to address’ issues such as whether SPS measures are inconsistent with the SPS Agreement and unfairly impede the flow of agricultural trade (Zarrilli, 1999). 

In general developing countries face difficulties as a result of 

a) the nature of the regulations imposed by importing countries and how they are enforced and 
b) their own capacity to implement the regulations on their exports. 

Walker cites a committee of food safety, animal health and plant health experts who identified minimum requirements assumed in the SPS Agreement which included technical independence, legal authorities, financial funding mechanisms, technical stability and capability.  These exist to differing degrees in developing countries, or may be very loosely defined, ‘allowing for political decisions to over-ride scientifically based assessments’ (Walker, 1999: 3).

International assistance

The international response to these difficulties has been limited and Walker (1999) reports the lack of a systematic approach to assist developing countries take advantage of the SPS Agreement.  Much technical assistance offered so far has failed to recognise that many problems related to SPS measures are basic issues related to the level of economic development such as the ‘the efficacy of prevailing systems of SPS controls, development of scientific and technical expertise and access to modern testing methods’ (Henson and Loader, 2000: 25). 

In the past year there have been some initiatives launched to improve the ability of developing countries to take advantage of trade liberalisation.  Where the SPS Agreement is specified, most of the recommendations and challenges are directed at states and potential for improving the SPS agreement and options for technical assistance to increase capacity of developing countries to implement the agreements and to deal with the possible negative trade effects of SPS measures.
Projects aiming to increase capacity of developing countries in this area include:
 

• Strengthening Research and Policy Making Capacity on trade and environment in developing countries, being undertaken by FIELD and UNCTAD (http://www.unctad.org/trade-env/docs/Issues1.doc) and 

• The World Bank’s Integrated framework for trade-related assistance to least developed countries  (http://www.ldcs.org/index.htm).