The SPS agreement: Addressing historical factors in trade dispute resolution

Agriculture and Human Values

Volumn 19, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 283-292

  Kastner, Justin ^a,c   Powell, Douglas ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH   (Canada)

^b Department of Food Science ^*

^c UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH   (Canada)

Author keywords

Food safety; International trade; Sanitary and phytosanitary measures; SPS Agreement; WTO

Indexed keywords

EID: 33645371178     PISSN: 0889048X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/A:1021183817123     Document Type: Article

References (91)

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5. D. Powell and W. Leiss (1997). Mad Cows and Mother's Milk: The Perils of Poor Risk Communication (pp. 26-40). Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.
6. The authors of the SPS Agreement emphasize that the preferred method for resolving problems, including food safety related trade disputes, is for the countries concerned to discuss and settle the matters themselves (1998). Trading into the Future, 2nd ed., 43. Geneva: World Trade Organization.
7. R. Perren (1978). The Meat Trade in Britain 1840-1914, 60. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.
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10. The cattle plague, or rinderpest, was introduced on May 29, 1865, upon the arrival of the S.S. Tonning, conveying a cargo of animals to Hull from the Baltic port of Revel. Perren, The Meat Trade in Britain, 108.
11. Perren, The Meat Trade in Britain, Ibid., 113.
12. Derry, Ontario's Cattle Kingdom (pp. 60-61).
13. F. W. Powell (1927). The Bureau of Animal Industry: Its history, activities and organization, 4. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press;
14. Perren, The Meat Trade in Britain, 114.
15. Derry, Ontario's Cattle Kingdom, 60.
16. "The foreign animals order." The Times, December 7, 1878.
17. Perren, The Meat Trade in Britain, 113.
18. Appendix of Walley, The Four Bovine Scourges: Pleuro-Pneumonia, Foot-and-Mouth Disease, Cattle Plague, Tubercle (Scrofula) with an Appendix on the Inspection of Live Animals and Meat, 205.
19. D. McEachran, Montreal Veterinary College. Extract Report of the Minister of Agriculture for the Dominion of Canada for 1878: Report of Special Investigation into Existence of Cattle Disease in the United States. Quoted in Appendix of The Four Bovine Scourges: Pleuro-Pneumonia, Foot-and-Mouth Disease, Cattle Plague, Tubercle (Scrofula) with an Appendix on the Inspection of Live Animals and Meat, ibid., 206-209.
20. "The importation of cattle from America." The Times, April 8, 1879.
21. "The importation of cattle from America." The Times, 1879. Ibid.
22. "Diplomatic correspondence paper no. 264: Mr. Evarts to Mr. Welsh, April 2, 1879." Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States (1879);
23. Powell, The Bureau of Animal Industry, 6.
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26. J. L. Gignilliat (Agricultural History Ibid., 4.
27. Powell, The Bureau of Animal Industry, 8-9.
28. L. O. Cheever (1948). The House of Morrell (pp. 97-139). Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Torch Press.
29. J. P. Huttman (1978). "British meat imports in the free trade era." Agricultural History 52(2): 247;
30. W. W. Rostow (1948). British Economy of the Nineteenth Century, 231. Oxford: Oxford University Press, reprint, 1952;
31. Perren, The Meat Trade in Britain.
32. H. C. G. Matthew (1988). "The liberal age (1851-1914)." In K. O. Morgan (ed.), The Oxford History of Britain, 540. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
33. Speech of October 25, 1862, quoted in C. S. Campbell (1974). From Revolution to Rapprochement: The United States and Great Britain, 1783-1900, 106. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
34. Cobden was indeed popular; years before he was one of the most celebrated British politicians in Europe, "fêted in capital after capital." C. Harvie (1988). "Revolution and the rule of law (1789-1851)." In K. O. Morgan (ed.), The Oxford History of Britain, 513. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
35. Parliament House of Commons Grt. Brit. (1891). "Report of the departmental committee of the board of trade and the board of agriculture appointed by the president of the board of agriculture to inquire into and report upon the transatlantic cattle trade." Sessional Papers LXXVIII: 287.
36. H. Heaton (1948). Economic History of Europe, 422.
37. New York, New York: Harper & Row. While the years before 1873 and after 1896 were characterized by upward economic growth, the period 1873-1896 was downward. H. Heaton (1948). Economic History of Europe, Ibid., 653.
38. R. Perren (1995). Agriculture in Depression, 1870-1940, 9-10. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
39. Rostow, British Economy of the Nineteenth Century, 231.
40. The British had also invested heavily in US railroad transportation, which was necessary to bring America's food to ports for export. Heaton emphasizes, "After 1850 the lure of new issues of 'Home Rails' [that is, British railroads] subsided, only to give place to great expectations from rail-road enterprise in the United States . . ." Heaton, Economic History of Europe, 575.
41. The figure is for the year 1913-1914. Heaton, Economic History of Europe, Ibid., 578.
42. "Diplomatic correspondence paper no. 264: Mr. Evarts to Mr. Welsh, April 2, 1879." Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States.
43. Perren, Agriculture in Depression, 1870-1940, 11.
44. This was true for many Western European farmers - not just those in Britain. Cheap grain from Russia and the New World prompted other Western European farmers after 1870 to "switch their attention chiefly to the care of dairy and beef cattle, of pigs and poultry." Heaton, Economic History of Europe, 387-388.
45. Between 1875 and 1894, arable land acreage fell by a quarter and land devoted to growing wheat decreased by a half. Ibid., 423. While Heaton points out that some farms were abandoned altogether, Perren emphasizes the significant: land was increasingly used for grazing (animal-rearing) purposes. Perren, Agriculture in Depression, 1870-1940, pp. 9-12.
46. Perren, Agriculture in Depression, 1870-1940, pp. 9-12. Ibid.
47. H. Perkin (1969). The Origins of Modern English Society 1780-1880. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
48. H. Perkin (The Origins of Modern English Society 1780-1880. Ibid., 450.
49. "Our foreign food supplies." The Economist, July 20, 1878.
50. Walley, The Four Bovine Scourges: Pleuro-Pneumonia, Foot-and-Mouth Disease, Cattle Plague, Tubercle (Scrofula) with an Appendix on the Inspection of Live Animals and Meat, 46-48.
51. J. Gamgee (1857). Diseased Meat Sold in Edinburgh, and Meat Inspection in Connection with the Public Health and with the Interests of Agriculture: A Letter to the Right Hon. The Lord Provost of Edinburgh, 13. Edinburgh: Southerland & Knox.
52. Walley, The Four Bovine Scourges: Pleuro-Pneumonia, Foot-and-Mouth Disease, Cattle Plague, Tubercle (Scrofula) with an Appendix on the Inspection of Live Animals and Meat.
53. Perren, The Meat Trade in Britain;
54. A. Woods (1999). From Occupational Hazard to Animal Plague: Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Britain, 1839-1884. Master's Thesis, University of Manchester.
55. This is why Jack-the-Ripper probably was smiling with pride when, in 1888, London authorities thought his killings were the creation of a sophisticated medical doctor - not the work of some lower-class veterinarian. For a discussion on the role of professional politics amongst veterinarians in the nineteenth century, see A. Woods (1999). From Occupational Hazard to Animal Plague: Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Britain, 1839-1884. Ibid.
56. "The cattle disease bill." The Economist, June 29, 1878, 764.
57. Crump's report was reported in the Times, February 19, 1881, page 5.
58. Cited in Gignilliat, "Pigs, politics, and protection: The European boycott of American pork, 1879-1891," 5.
59. Gignilliat, "Pigs, politics, and protection: The European boycott of American pork, 1879-1891," 5. Ibid.
60. Blaine to Sir Edward Thornton, March 9, 1881. Foreign Relations 1881, p. 581.
61. Quoted in Foreign Relations Ibid., 6.
62. Foreign Relations 6. Ibid.
63. While some shipments of US cattle and meat went to continental Europe, the bulk went to Britain. Powell, The Bureau of Animal Industry; and Perren, The Meat Trade in Britain.
64. Powell, The Bureau of Animal Industry, 5;
65. "The foreign animals order." The Times, December 7, 1878.
66. This problem was eventually resolved, but not without some convincing of Congress, who did not provide ample disease control funding until the 1880s. Powell, The Bureau of Animal Industry, pp. 5-14.
67. 2nd Session 51st Congress (1890-1891). Statutes of the United States of America (pp. 833, 1089-1091). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
68. Powell, The Bureau of Animal Industry, 14.
69. "The United States Cattle Export Regulations." The Times, September 19, 1891.
70. "The United States Cattle Export Regulations." The Times, 1891. Ibid.,
71. "Order by the board of agriculture." The Times, September 2, 1891.
72. C. R. Stuart (1985). The Genesis of Federal Food and Drug Legislation in Canada, 1874-1890, 6. Master's Thesis, Wilfrid Laurier University.
73. Campbell, From Revolution to Rapprochement.
74. While the trade dispute over hormone-treated beef may have initially been fuelled in part by (Europe's) desires to protect beef producers, today the dispute is primarily an issue of risk perception. For a helpful discussion on this subject, see W. A. Kerr and J. Hobbs (2000). "The WTO and the dispute over beef produced using growth Hormones." CATRN Paper 2000-07, Canadian Agrifood Trade Research Network.
75. International trade disputes over genetically modified foods are tied up in extremely complex issues of risk perception, not the least of which is the role of the precautionary principle.
76. J. J. Kastner and R. K. Pawsey (2002). "Harmonising sanitary measures and resolving trade disputes through the WTO-SPS framework. Part II: A case study of the US-Australia determination of equivalence in meat inspection." Food Control 13(1). This article is the second of a two-part case study series demonstrating, among other things, the importance of intergovernmental regulatory cooperation. The first case study shows the price of not pursuing intergovernmental regulatory cooperation (in the US-EU hormone-treated beef dispute).
77. See J. J. Kastner and R. K. Pawsey (2002). "Harmonising sanitary measures and resolving trade disputes through the WTO-SPS framework. Part I: A case study of the US-EU hormone-treated beef dispute." Food Control 13(1).
78. Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, The WTO Agreement Series, 29. Geneva: World Trade Organization, 2000.
79. M. Trebilcock and R. Howse (1999). The Regulation of International Trade, 37. London: Routledge.
80. Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, The WTO Agreement Series. Geneva: World Trade Organization, 2000.
81. B. A. Silverglade (2000). "The WTO Agreement on sanitary and phytosanitary measures: Weakening food safety regulations to facilitate trade?" Food and Drug Law Journal 55(4).
82. S. Charnovitz (1998). "WTO salmon decision may undermine health." World Food Regulation Review 8(7).
83. Australia - Measures Affecting Importation of Salmon - Report of the Panel, Paragraph 9.1(ii). Geneva: World Trade Organization, 1998.
84. Canada and Australia Reach Agreement on Salmon [News Release No. 106 with Backgrounder] (May 16, 2000 [cited March 2, 2002]); available from www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/ tna-nac/dispute-e.asp#Salmon;
85. J. J. Kastner (1999). "Harmonising sanitary measures and resolving trade disputes" (pp. 42-59).
86. M.Sc. Dissertation, South Bank University. Tasmanian opposition fomented conflicts with the Australian (federal) government's efforts to comply with the WTO ruling. See Section VIII. Conclusions in Australia - Measures Affecting Importation of Salmon - Recourse to Article 21.5 by Canada (pp. 135-137). Geneva: World Trade Organization, 2000;
87. as well as M. Thornton (2000). "Tasmania to Use Quarantine Laws to Unilaterally Ban GMOs." World Food Chemical News 7(4): 5.
88. Trading into the Future, 2nd ed., 43. Geneva: World Trade Organization, 1998.
89. Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, The WTO Agreement Series, Annex A:3. Geneva: World Trade Organization, 2000.
90. Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, The WTO Agreement Series, 2000. Ibid. Annex B: 5.
91. However, for developing countries, whose bureaucratic machinery is already overworked, the demands of the SPS notification process are daunting, and capacity-building efforts are needed. See the report (2000), "Impact of sanitary and phytosanitary measures on developing countries" by the Centre for Food Economics Research, University of Reading, in "SPS rules barrier to trade for poor countries." Agra Europe 1904: 10.