Download or read book The Impact of WTO SPS Law on EU Food Regulations written by Chris Downes and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2014-03-20 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings a fresh perspective on the emerging field of international food law with the first detailed analysis of the process and implications of domestic compliance with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement. It investigates the influence of WTO disciplines on the domestic policy-making process and examines the extent to which international trade law determines European Union (EU) food regulations. Following controversial WTO rulings on genetically-modified foods and growth hormones in beef, awareness and criticism of global rules governing food has grown considerably. Yet the real impact of this international legal meta-framework on domestic regulations has remained obscure to practitioners and largely unexplored by legal commentators. This book examines the emergence of transnational governance practices set in motion by the SPS Agreement and their role in facilitating agricultural trade. In so doing, it complements and challenges conventional accounts of the SPS regime dominated by analysis of WTO disputes. It reviews legal commentary of the SPS Agreement to understand why WTO rules are so commonly characterised as a significant threat to domestic food policy preferences. It then takes on these assumptions through an in-depth review of food policies and decision-making practices in the EU, revealing both the potential and limits of WTO law to shape EU policies. It finally examines two important venues for the generation of global food norms – the WTO SPS Committee and Codex Alimentarius – to evaluate the practice and significance of transnational governance in this domain. Through detailed case studies including novel foods, food additives, vitamin and mineral supplements and transparency and equivalence procedures, this book provides a richer account of compliance and exposes the subtle, but important influence of WTO obligations.

Download or read book Food Safety Standards in International Trade written by Onsando Osiemo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-09-15 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Food safety has become a major concern for consumers in the developed world and Europe in particular. This has been highlighted by the recent spate of food scares ranging from the BSE (mad cow) crisis to Chinese melamine contamination of baby formula. To ensure food safety throughout Europe, stringent food safety standards have been put in place ‘from farm to fork’. At the same time, poor African countries in the COMESA rely on their food exports to the European market to achieve their development goals yet have difficulty meeting the EU food safety standards. This book examines the impact of EU food safety standards on food imports from COMESA countries. It also critically examines both EU and COMESA food safety standards in light of the WTO SPS Agreement and the jurisprudence of the WTO panels and Appellate Body. The book makes ground-breaking proposals on how the standards divide between the EU and the COMESA can be bridged and discusses the impact of EU food safety standards on food imports from poor African countries.

Download or read book Regulating food law written by Anna Szajkowska and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-09-04 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Animal cloning, nanotechnology, and genetic modifications are all examples of recent controversies around food regulation where scientific evidence occupies a central position. This book provides a fresh perspective on EU scientific food safety governance by offering a legal insight into risk analysis and the precautionary principle, positioned as general principles of EU food law. To explain what the science-based requirement means in EU multi-level governance, this book places these principles in the legislative dynamics of the EU internal market and the meta-framework of the international trade regime established by the WTO. Numerous examples of the case-law of European Courts show implications of risk analysis and science-based food law for EU and national decision makers, as well as food businesses. This book focuses on the crucial aspects of the risk analysis methodology. It redefines the precautionary principle and clarifies its scope of application. It analyses the extent to which non-scientific factors, such as consumers' risk perception, local traditions or ethical considerations, can be taken into account at national and EU level. This book argues that, compared to EU institutions, the autonomy allocated to national authorities is much more limited, which raises questions about the legitimacy of food safety governance in the EU.

Download or read book International Trade and Health Protection written by Tracey Epps and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This detailed and fully referenced text is a valuable resource both for practitioners and academics. Michael Blakeney, International Trade Law and Regulation Interspersing law with societal context, this volume by Dr Epps stands out among WTO analysis. The author offers a delightfully balanced view on the nature and origin of SPS measures (including references to history) whilst at the same time mastering the hard law of the SPS Agreement in detail. Practitioners will enjoy the detailed analysis of WTO dispute settlement. A reference book for practice and academia, and also a very, very good read. Geert Van Calster, Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium This book examines and critiques the WTO s Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement), asking whether it strikes an appropriate balance between conflicting domestic health protection and trade liberalization objectives. It pays particular attention to situations likely to occur but not yet fully examined either in the literature or in WTO law; most importantly, where public opinion demands regulation in the face of scientific uncertainty as to the existence or otherwise of a health risk. Tracey Epps concludes that the SPS Agreement s science-based framework is capable of dealing with the differing objectives of health and trade, and that it provides countries with more flexibility to respond to scientific uncertainties and public sentiment than many critics contend. This conclusion is strongly influenced by a positive analysis of domestic regulatory decision-making, which finds potential for regulatory capture by domestic protectionist interests and thus emphasizes the importance of ensuring that decisions are made on a sound and principled basis. Including a historical overview of disputes over trade and health since the 1800s, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of and new perspective on an important area of intersection between international trade law and domestic policy. It will be of interest to a wide-ranging audience including legal and non-legal academics, policy makers and analysts in the field of risk regulation, trade law practitioners in governments, and lawyers and analysts in international institutions.

Download or read book Impact of WTO Law on European Food Regulation written by Marco Bronckers and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Food occupies a central role within the World Trade Organization (WTO), certainly where litigation is concerned. By way of illustration, a cursory read of WTO disputes initiated by Members to date reveals the existence of a veritable dispute settlement 'menu': WTO tribunals have entertained cases on beef (conventional and hormone-treated), chicken, lamb, salmon, sardines, scallops, and shrimp. Disputes of a more vegetarian-friendly nature have focused on apples, butter, bananas, coconuts, corn syrup, dairy products, GMO maize, GMO oilseed rape, GMO soybeans, GMO sugar beets, grains, laver, peaches, rice, sugar, wheat, and wheat gluten. To complete this menu, WTO tribunals have also heard disputes on alcoholic beverages and soft drinks. Food disputes that failed to reach WTO tribunal stages, because of a last minute settlements, have ranged from edible oils and coffee to macaroni. All in all, over a third of the more than 380 disputes initiated since WTO's inception in 1955 have involved food. No product category other than 'metals' comes close. These WTO disputes have involved a wide variety of food-related measures. In this article, we focus on the WTO disciplines relating to domestic regulation. In part II we will first explain how WTO Members like the EU try to position their food regulations so as to attract the seemingly more flexible (the 'TBT' as opposed to the 'SPS' regime). We will argue that many of these attempts may ultimately prove to be illusory. Next, we will illustrate the WTO-legal issues that can be presented by labelling regulations, which continue to be controversial but so far have largely escaped WTO litigation. In part III, we will sketch how private food interests can appeal to WTO law principles to resist unnecessary or undesirable food regulation in the EU. While denying 'direct effect' to WTO obligations, the European courts have found more subtle ways to give domestic law effect to WTO rules at the request of private parties.

Download or read book Trade in Food written by Alberto Alemanno and published by Cameron May. This book was released on 2007 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trade in Food surveys and explores the evolution of the European Community's regulation of food within the broader framework set out by the WTO Agreements. Its main purpose is to provide readers keen to deepen their knowledge of the field with easy access to the EC and WTO food laws accompanied by a critical explanation and commentary. The book is suitable for legal practitioners, judges, policy-makers, officials of international organizations as well as post graduate students of international trade law and policy, international and European economic law, global administrative law and risk regulation.

Download or read book The WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures written by Lukasz Gruszczynski and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-07-25 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1995 WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) is concerned with trade and food safety regulation, and with the regulation of pests and diseases in agriculture. It establishes legal standards while affirming the right of each member to choose its own level of SPS protection. However, the question of whether the balance has been properly struck remains a matter of ongoing debate. The Commentary provides a detailed update of the first edition authored by Joanne Scott in 2007. It reflects 15 years of change in SPS case law and practice. It critically examines current issues such as use of experts in the dispute settlement process, applicable standard of review, or legal treatment of private standards in food safety. Moreover, the Commentary assesses the suitability of the current regime to address the existing needs of developing countries The commentary also examines how science-based criteria and the traditional GATT standards (non-discrimination and least-trade-restrictive means) are used to discipline national SPS measures. It explores the transparency obligations and procedural rules that govern control, inspection, and approval processes in importing countries. A separate section is dedicated to the operation of the SPS Committee as an arena for transnational governance in the SPS field. The book also investigates the agreement's attempt to establish a framework to draw together the diverse institutions and regulatory regimes already populating the food safety arena. Two new chapters are also included: one reviewing Article 5.7 SPS in greater detail, and one dealing with the SPS rules in selected regional trade agreements (the CETA, EU-Japan EPA, USMCA, RCEP, and CPTPP).

Download or read book International Food Law written by Cinzia Caporale and published by Kluwer Law International B.V.. This book was released on 2021-05-21 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: estation, habitat destruction and zoonoses; food naming and labelling; and food risk management. Throughout there is reference to an abundance of legislation, treaties, conventions, and case law at domestic, regional, and international levels, with particular attention to European, US, and World Trade Organization law and the work of the FAO. The book clearly demonstrates the necessity for reform of the global system of food production in the direction of a more sustainable and environment-friendly model. In its authoritative discussion of the relations among fields of law that are rarely discussed together – food law and the environment, food law and human rights, food law and animal welfare – this collection of chapters will prove a valuable resource both for officials working in food governance and security and for lawyers and scholars concerned with environmental management, sustainable development, and human rights around the world.

Download or read book WTO Law written by Birgitte Egelund Olsen and published by Kluwer Law International B.V.. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 515 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The European Union (EU) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) share the distinction of having proven themselves as the two most successful large-scale international trade regulation regimes. This very useful book analyses the core legal concepts and rules that characterise the regulation of trade in the WTO. At the heart of the analysis is a comparison of WTO rules with parallel rules in the EU trade system, revealing how similar trade issues are dealt with in the two systems – a perspective that not only sheds light on how WTO law and EU law interact, but also greatly facilitates an understanding of the special features of WTO law for readers who are more familiar with EU law. Within this framework, the authors explore such key trade issues as the following: dispute settlement; implementation of judicial decisions and enforcement; principles of non-discrimination; trade in goods; non-discriminatory restrictions as barriers to trade; exceptions from trade-liberalisation obligations; trade and environmental protection;trade in agricultural products; conditions for applying safeguard and anti-dumping measures; prohibited and actionable subsidies; regulation of services; protection of intellectual property rights; regional trade agreements; special and differential treatments; government procurement; competition policy; and regulation of investment. As a timely and accessible analysis of the WTO and its interaction with the EU, this book is sure to be welcomed by international trade professionals, government officials, and interested academics, students, and researchers.

Download or read book Advanced Introduction to International Food Law written by Neal D. Fortin and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2023-03-02 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Advanced Introduction provides a succinct overview of the principles and rules that guide international food law. Neal D. Fortin explores how the globalisation of food supply chains has impacted international food law, making it a pressing concern for contemporary lawmakers. Exploring the maintenance of standards, rules, and laws, alongside issues in relation to economics, trade agreements, and free-trade, this comprehensive book provides insight into the future of international food law.

Download or read book Food Safety and the WTO The Interplay of Culture Science and Technology written by Marsha Echols and published by Kluwer Law International B.V.. This book was released on 2001-11-16 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today's international trade regime explicitly rejects cultural perceptions of what is safe to eat, overturning millennia of tradition. The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) enshrines "science" as the arbiter in resolving disputes involving this vital human need. This mandate, however, is under attack from many quarters. Critics cite environmental and ethical concerns, unpredictably changing technology, taste, food preferences, local culture, adequacy of governmental implementation of WTO standards, and the reliability of scientific opinion. A basic conflict has crystallized: food as culture versus food as commerce. The WTO/SPS approach is increasingly challenged for its balance in favor of economic considerations, and for its visible undermining of unique cultural identities. This important book explores the relationship between the SPS Agreement, food traditions, science, and technology. It deliberately confronts those trade experts who refuse to allow other social sciences to influence their economics-based trade theory. The author ably investigates the local perception of food and food safety from the anthropological and historical points of view, the evolution of food production technologies, and the medicinal, proscriptive (taboo) and security aspects of food that continue to prevail in nearly all cultures today. She succeeds in demonstrating that, no matter how strong the faith in science and economics, it is unwise to flagrantly dismiss the deeply rooted beliefs of billions of people, a huge majority of the world's population. The Beef Hormones case; the remaining sovereignty related to food safety measures; the increasing significance of "appropriate levels of protection" and "the precautionary principle"; the redefinition of "food hazard" to include production processes as well as food itself; genetically modified seeds and food products; the concept of "risk" in the science-based context of the Codex Alimentarius - these are among the issues and topics covered in depth. The author concludes that, although quick "legal" resolutions of trade disputes about what people should or should not eat might provide a "win" for open trade, support for the entire structure and rationale of the WTO is undermined unless (at the least) some flexibility of interpretation is introduced into the WTO Dispute Resolution System in order to recognize the weight and validity of public opinion. Food safety is arguably the most important issue affecting international commerce today, urgently demanding enlightened discussion and action based on global consensus. This well-researched and thoughtful contribution offers significant clarification and perspective to policymakers, lawyers, academics and others engaged in this critical human drama in progress on the world stage.

Download or read book When Cooperation Fails written by Mark A. Pollack and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2009-05-21 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The transatlantic dispute over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has brought into conflict the United States and the European Union, two long-time allies and economically interdependent democracies with a long record of successful cooperation. Yet the dispute - pitting a largely acceptant US against an EU deeply suspicious of GMOs - has developed into one of the most bitter and intractable transatlantic and global conflicts, resisting efforts at negotiated resolution and resulting in a bitterly contested legal battle before the World Trade Organization. Professors Pollack and Shaffer investigate the obstacles to reconciling regulatory differences among nations through international cooperation, using the lens of the GMO dispute. The book addresses the dynamic interactions of domestic law and politics, transnational networks, international regimes, and global markets, through a theoretically grounded and empirically comprehensive analysis of the governance of GM foods and crops. They demonstrate that the deeply politicized, entrenched and path-dependent nature of the regulation of GMOs in the US and the EU has fundamentally shaped negotiations and decision-making at the international level, limiting the prospects for deliberation and providing incentives for both sides to engage in hard bargaining and to "shop" for favorable international forums. They then assess the impacts, and the limits, of international pressures on domestic US and European law, politics and business practice, which have remained strikingly resistant to change. International cooperation in areas like GMO regulation, the authors conclude, must overcome multiple obstacles, legal and political, domestic and international. Any effective response to this persistent dispute, they argue, must recognize both the obstacles to successful cooperation, and the options that remain for each side when cooperation fails.

Download or read book The functional field of food law written by Altinay Urazbaeva and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-12-04 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two worlds that in academia remain largely separated are brought together in this book in a unique way; the world of food safety law and the world of the right to food. Key features include: (1) an up to date reflection of the status quo on food law related research written by those who are at the forefront of research in the functional field of food law; (2) a collection of contributions from all continents of the world; and (3) covering human rights, international law, European law and non-European law dimensions. This book is written as a Liber Amicorum in honour of Professor Bernd van der Meulen, who was the Chair of Law and Governance at Wageningen University (2001-2018), and established food law as an academic discipline in the Netherlands. In 29 contributions the functional field of food law is discussed. The contributors are researchers and academics from around the globe, and are above all friends who have worked with Bernd during his time at Wageningen University. In this book, they share their latest insights, research and thoughts on this fascinating and highly relevant field.

Download or read book The Regulation of Product Standards in World Trade Law written by Ming Du and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-11-12 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph has two central purposes. The first is to provide a critical analysis of how governmental, private and hybrid product standards are regulated in the GATT/WTO legal framework. The second purpose is to explore – both positively and normatively – the impact that WTO disciplines may have on the composition, function and decision-making process of various standard-setting bodies through the lens of a series of selected case studies, including: the EU eco-labelling scheme; ISO standards; and private standards such as the FSC. The book analyses what role, if any, the WTO may play in making product standards applied in international trade embody not only technological superiority but also substantive and procedural fairness such as deliberation, representativeness, openness, transparency, due process and accountability. Whilst it has been long recognised that voluntary product standards drawn up by both governmental and non-governmental bodies can in practice create trade barriers as serious as mandatory governmental regulations, a rigorous and systematic inquiry into the boundary, relevance and impact of WTO disciplines on product standards is still lacking. Providing a lucid interpretation of the relevant WTO rules and cases on product standards, this book fills this significant gap in WTO law literature. Definitive and comprehensive, this is an essential reference work for scholars and practitioners alike.

Download or read book Regulating and Managing Food Safety in the EU written by Harry Bremmers and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-08-01 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses EU food law from a regulatory, economic and managerial perspective. It presents an economic assessment of strategies of food safety regulation, and discusses the different regulatory regimes in EU food law. It examines the challenges of food safety in the internal market as well as the regulatory tools that are available. The book’s generic theorising and measurement of regulatory effects is supplemented by detailed analysis of key topics in food markets, such as health claims, enforcement strategies, and induced risk management at the level of the organizations producing food. The regulatory effects discussed in the book range from classical regulatory analysis covering e.g. effects of ex-ante versus ex-post regulation and content-related versus information-related regulation to new regulatory options such as behavioral regulation. The book takes as its premise the idea that economic considerations are basic to the design and functioning of the European food supply arena, and that economic effects consolidate or induce modification of the present legal structures and principles. The assessments, analyses and examination of the various issues presented in the book serve to answer the question of how economic theory and practice can explain and enhance the shaping and modification of the regulatory framework that fosters safe and sustainable food supply chains. ​ ​

Download or read book European Food Regulation after Enlargement written by Karolina Żurek and published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. This book was released on 2011-11-11 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a critical legal perspective on the current direction of EU food regulation. Analysing three regulatory mechanisms - mutual recognition, scientific risk regulation and standardisation - in the evolution of food legislation in the EU, the book shows the inadequacy of the current framework in facing the challenges of enlargement. Using the particular experience of a new member state, Poland, the book argues that an enlarged Europe must not disregard diverse socio-economic implications of market regulation. Due to historical legacies and a bias in favour of homogeneity, the EU food regulatory regime has generated a one-dimensional crisis-oriented approach. As a result, it tends to overlook other legitimate concerns such as quality, diversity and local traditions. This book argues that this need not be so.

Download or read book Perspectives and Guidelines on Food Legislation written by Jessica Vapnek and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2005 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The increasing globalization of food trade and the harmonization of food standards and food safety rules have led to significant changes in the international and national regulatory frameworks for food. There is an increasing recognition of the need to integrate and improve coordination of regulatory activities among national and international bodies for better protection of human, animal and plant life and health without creating unnecessary barriers to trade. In addition, catastrophic outbreaks of food-borne disease have sparked increasing attention to the regulatory frameworks for food safety and food trade in the global arena. These developments have given rise to new legislative needs. National regulatory frameworks have to be adjusted to meet international and regional obligations, while the distribution of responsibilities for the food sector requires rigorous review. The present text draws on FAO's experience in providing technical assistance to governments developing new food laws and regulations, setting out and examining the many elements of the national system which should be taken into account in a comprehensive review of national regulatory frameworks for food. Towards that end, the text offers concrete recommendations for the preparation of a basic national food law, including three variants of a new model food law.