Sanitary and Phytosanitary Barriers

Sanitary and phytosanitary measures aim to protect human and animal life and health and plant health through rules, procedures and controls applicable to international trade in agricultural products, in order to ensure the safety and quality of food consumed domestically and exported, as well as the protection of national territory against pests and diseases. To prevent these legitimate objectives from resulting in undue obstacles to international trade, the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (1994) was negotiated within the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO SPS Agreement defines that the measures adopted by the countries, which are reasonable, proportional, and temporary, should have as reference the standards established by the International Organizations mentioned in the SPS agreement: the Codex Alimentarius, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC).

In multilateral negotiations at the WTO, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Itamaraty) has sought to strengthen the link between OIE international norms, standards and recommendations and the sanitary and phytosanitary measures established by members, especially with respect to the implementation of the regionalization principle, that is, for the recognition of regions or areas free or with low prevalence of pests within the same country. Itamaraty has also sought to strengthen the link between Codex international norms, standards and recommendations for risk analysis with SPS measures established by members, with a view to requiring members to conduct specific risk analysis in Codex standard, based on solid scientific evidence, including stages of hazard identification, hazard characterization, exposure assessment; and risk characterization.

At the bilateral level, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs monitors, in real time, through its network of posts overseas, the emergence of undue sanitary and phytosanitary barriers to international trade. The Department of Agribusiness Promotion (DPAgro) and its Divisions maintain, in turn, regular contacts with the private sector in order to outline the actions to be taken in this regard. Bilateral technical negotiations between the respective sanitary or phytosanitary authorities (in the case of Brazil, the authorities of the animal or plant health area of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply) are conducted with monitoring and support from Itamaraty and are the first step towards opening or reopening markets. In the event that direct negotiations fail for protectionist reasons, the second step is, in coordination and agreement with the private sector and other government agencies, the formalization of "Specific Trade Concerns" (SPCs) in the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Committee). The Committee meets quarterly at the headquarters of the organization in Geneva. Currently, there are about two dozen Specific Trade Concerns formalized by Brazil in the SPS Committee.  The third step, in case of lack of results in the consultations regarding the SPS, consists in, always in agreement with the interests of the Brazilian private sector and in coordination with other interested governmental bodies, after previous authorization of Camex, to evaluate, plan and execute the establishment of consultations and panels in the scope of the WTO dispute settlement system.

In bilateral or bi-regional (involving Mercosur) trade facilitation agreements, they seek to detail the provisions provided for in the WTO SPS agreement (deadlines for the emergency exchange of information in cases of pests and plagues, simplified rules for the recognition of equivalence of sanitary and phytosanitary systems, recognition of the principle of regionalization, scientific evidence and specific risk analysis, alternative measures that are less harmful to trade, etc.). The countries have also achieved, as in the recent Brazil-Chile free trade agreement signed in November 2018, the insertion of "WTO Plus" provisions in regulatory convergence and trade facilitation, such as "pre-listing", that is to say, the automatic recognition by the importing country of companies authorized by the exporting country to market its agricultural products.