Key Innovations In TPP SPS Chapter Carved Out From Dispute Settlement

The Trans-Pacific Partnership chapter on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures fleshes out and clarifies the core obligations of the World Trade Organization SPS Agreement, but two key provisions that tighten the WTO standards to make it harder for countries to restrict imports on food safety grounds are not subject to dispute settlement. One of these provisions gives exporting countries a new avenue to prove that their food safety measures are "equivalent" to those of the importing party, thereby permitting imports...