[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