NAFTA AGRICULTURE FACT SHEET:
Sanitary/Phytosanitary

• The NAFTA Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement imposes disciplines on the development, adoption and enforcement of SPS measures, namely those taken for the protection of human, animal or plant life or health from risks arising from animal or plant pests or diseases, food additives or contaminants.
• These disciplines are designed to prevent use of SPS measures as disguised restrictions on trade, while safeguarding each country's right to take SPS measures to protect human, animal or plant life or health.

Basic Rights and Obligations

• The NAFTA confirms the right of each country to establish the level of SPS protections that it considers appropriate and provides that a NAFTA country may achieve that level of protection through SPS measures that:

1. are based on scientific principles and a risk assessment;
2. are applied only to the extent necessary to provide a country's chosen level of protections; and
3. do not result in unfair discrimination or disguised restrictions on trade.

International Standards

• To avoid creating unnecessary barriers to trade, the NAFTA encourages the three countries to use relevant international standards in the development of their SPS measures. However, it permits each country to adopt more stringent, science-based measures when necessary to achieve its chosen level of protection.
• The NAFTA partners will promote the development and review of international SPS standards in such international and North American standardizing organizations as the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the International Office of Epizootics, the Tripartite Animal Health Commission, the International Plant Protection Convention and the North American Plant Protection Organization.

Equivalence

• The three countries have agreed to work toward equivalent SPS measures without reducing any country's chosen level of protection of human, animal or plant life or health. Each NAFTA country will accept SPS measures of another NAFTA country as equivalent to its own, provided that the exporting country demonstrates that its measures achieve the importing country's chosen level of protection.

Risk Assessment

• The NAFTA establishes disciplines on risk assessment, including for evaluating the likelihood of entry, establishment or spread of pests and diseases. SPS measures must be based on an assessment of risk to human, animal or plant life or health, taking into account risk assessment techniques developed by international or North American standardizing organizations. A NAFTA country may grant a phase-in period for compliance by goods from another NAFTA country where the phase-in would be consistent with ensuring the importing country's chosen level of SPS protection.

Adaptation to Regional Conditions

• This section also establishes rules for the adaptation of SPS measures to regional conditions, in particular regarding pest- or disease-free areas and areas of low pest or disease prevalence. An exporting country must provide objective evidence whenever it claims that goods from its territory originate in a pest- or disease-free area or area of low pest or disease prevalence.

Procedural Transparency

• The NAFTA requires public notice in most cases prior to the adoption or modification of any SPS measure that may affect trade in North America. The notice must identify the goods to be covered, and the objectives of and reasons for the measure. All SPS measures must be published promptly. Each NAFTA country will ensure that a designated inquiry point provides information regarding such measures.

Control, Inspection and Approval Procedures

• The NAFTA also establishes rules governing procedures for ensuring the fulfillment of SPS measures. These rules allow the continued operation of domestic control, inspection and approval procedures, including national systems for approving the use of additives or for establishing tolerances for contaminants in foods, beverages or feedstuffs, subject to such disciplines as national treatment, timeliness and procedural transparency.

Technical Assistance

• The three countries will facilitate the provision of technical assistance concerning SPS measures either directly or through appropriate international or North American standardizing organizations.

Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

• A Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures will facilitate the enhancement of food safety and sanitary conditions in the free trade area, promote the harmonization and equivalence of SPS measures and facilitate technical cooperation and consultations, including consultations regarding disputes involving SPS measures.

Last modified: Friday, November 18, 2005