SPS Committee: Arbiter for Food Safety

By Lisa Anderson

What happens when good trading partners disagree over the safety of an agricultural product? If the partners belong to NAFTA, they can turn to the trilateral NAFTA Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures for resolution of their differences: sanitary (for animals) and phytosanitary (for plants) or SPS for short.

One of about 30 committees set up when NAFTA went into effect in January 1994, the SPS Committee addresses measures taken to protect food safety and animal and plant health.

Before NAFTA, vague SPS justifications were often used as a cover to keep trade barriers in place. Domestic industries could assert a health risk claim, no matter how unfounded, and thus be protected from foreign competition.

That practice has greatly diminished. While NAFTA recognizes the right of its members to assert SPS measures, even measures tougher than international standards, each member must adhere to guidelines that assure SPS rules are fair and equitable. Rules must be:

• Based on scientific principles and risk assessments;
• Applied only to the extent necessary to provide the country’s chosen level of protection;
• Applied equitably between similar goods or conditions of a NAFTA-exporting country.

Though not required, NAFTA encourages the use of established international standards and the adoption of equivalent standards. The agreement also establishes SPS procedures for control, inspection and approval of goods and makes sure that transparency¹ is maintained.

The SPS Committee, with two chairs from each NAFTA country, has met seven times since its inception in 1994.

There have been significant successes:

• Increased U.S. market access for fresh pork from plants in Sonora, Mexico, that are approved by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
• Access for Haas avocados from approved orchards in Mexico’s Michoacan state. The avocados undergo an overlapping series of safeguards and are sold only in selected states.
• Complete market access for U.S. sweet cherries in Mexico.
• Progress on gaining market access for Arizona citrus.
• Progress on U.S. approval for poultry exports that are processed by Mexican factories and re-exported to the United States.

¹ NAFTA's transparency provisions require the prompt publication of all SPS regulations and, upon request by a member, an explanation of the reasons for any particular food safety or animal or plant health requirement

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The author is a student working under the Career Experience Component Program with the Food Safety and Technical Services Division of the Foreign Agricultural Service. Tel.: (202) 690-4539; Fax: (202) 690-0677; E-mail: AndersonL@fas.usda.gov

Last modified: Thursday, October 14, 2004 PM