WTO: Brazil and EU clash on plant health

Brazil and the European Union (EU) signaled differences in the World Trade Organization (WTO) involving the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement), which deals with food and vegetable safety, illustrating a confrontation that tends to evolve between importers and exporters.

The EU foresees “a turning point” in the global transition on sustainable food production and consumption with the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Summit on Food Systems, the 26th Conference of the Parties on UN Climate Change and the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit, all this year.

In this context, the bloc argues that the WTO SPS Committee should address issues related to this transition and international trade, taking into account “the need to safeguard the right of members to take the necessary measures to protect life or human, animal, or plant health or for disguised restrictions on international trade.

“Sustainable food systems are essential to be able to respond to global concerns about climate change, the biodiversity crisis and the degradation of ecosystems, and to achieve sustainable development goals’’, argued the EU representation.

Brazil is one of the countries that most vocally advocates the strengthening of scientific aspects of the SPS Agreement. This is to curb barriers to agricultural products without a prior risk analysis and that also ignore international and scientific standards. So the clash of views was inevitable at the WTO.

Source: Valor Econômico

To read the full original article, visit the link:

https://valor.globo.com/agronegocios/noticia/2021/07/18/brasil-e-ue-mostram-divergencias-na-omc-sobre-fitossanidade.ghtml

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