WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SPS/GEN/246
27 April 2001
(01-2124)
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Original:  English
THE TREATMENT OF PRECAUTION IN THE SPS AGREEMENT
Statement by Canada at the Meeting of 14-15 March 2001
1. WTO members recognize the central role of precaution in the management of risks in
situations of limited scientific information, particularly in cases of risks to human life or health and
animal or plant health.  Indeed precaution is wi dely recognized as an important element in the
formulation of measures in these areas.
2. The global community is engaging, through a variety of international fora, in discussions
aimed at elaborating the appropriate role and application of precaution in the assessment and
management of risk.  This heightened interest in, for example, the CODEX Alimentarius, UNEP, and
the system of multilateral environmental agreements, as well as the OECD, is to some extent rooted in
increased consumer awareness and sensitivity to risk combined with an increasingly globalizedsystem of production, distribution and consump tion of products which may introduce additional
sources of risk.
3. Welcoming these discussions in other fora, we have noted that the SPS Agreement is often
referred to as relevant to the issue;  in particular, Article 5.7.  Such references are a recognition that
the SPS Agreement is in many ways one of the most elaborated operational balance of rights andobligations on the role and use of precaution and in managing risks in a multilateral agreement.
However, the relevance of the SPS Agreement to the issue of precaution is not limited to any one
particular article.
4. For example, a central tenet of the SPS Agreement is the right, under Article 3.3, of each
WTO member to set standards more stringent than established international standards so as to reflect
properly their individual "appropriate level of protection".  A country's appropriate level of protection
includes, inter alia , its individual "tolerance to risk" and  "degree of precaution".  This sovereign right
is, however, tempered or balanced by a number of obligations on Members, including those of
Article 5.5, not to set such standards in an arbitrary or discriminatory fashion, i.e. to be consistent in
their treatment of situations of similar risk.
5. It would appear that the relevance of the SPS Agreement to any discussion of the role and use
of precaution in managing risks extends beyond Article 5.7.  With this in mind, it would be useful forthe SPS Committee to contribute to the international discussions on this issue at a future meeting of
this body.  To be most useful, a discussion within the SPS Committee should be a practical one,
focused on an exchange of individual Member's experience in managing risks in situations of limited
scientific information within the context of thei r rights and obligations under the SPS Agreement.
6. The object of such a discussion within the SPS Committee is not to revisit or re-negotiate the
existing provisions of the Agreement.  Nor should it aim at developing guidelines on precaution as
such an undertaking would inevitably extend beyond the mandate of this Committee and into that of
other multilateral bodies.  Rather, the aim of the discussion would be to arrive at a common
understanding on how precaution is addressed in the context of the existing rights and obligations of
the SPS Agreement.  This could then serve to inform the discussions ongoing in other fora.  Giventhat the SPS Agreement's scope extends beyond, or overlaps with, the scope of other international
bodies, this would facilitate coherent conclusions from such fora.
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