Now the international trade is governed by the World Trade Organization (WTO) which is the only global body dealing with the trade among nations. At its heart are the accords signed by the bulk of the trading nations (148 at present) and ratified by their respective parliaments.

According to the "Dictionary of Trade Policy Terms", sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) are "border control measures necessary to protect human, animal and plant life or health. Popularly they are often called quarantine measures".

In the WTO context, the agreement on the application of sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS Agreement) defines its scope as a function of the objective of the measure, i.e. food safety and animal and plant health protection.

Consequently, products, processes and production methods are equally covered by its provisions. For example, slaughter houses must comply with strict sanitary standards if the end users are to receive safe meat products.

The efforts for the harmonization of international trade were finalized in the Uruguay Round, which ended the GATT era and gave rise to the WTO regime. In December 1988, at the mid-term review of the Uruguay Round, some key issues related to SPS measures were identified and discussed.

Those issues included international harmonization based upon standards developed by international organizations, development of an effective notification process for national regulations and setting up of a system for the bilateral resolution of dispute settlement process.

A working group was formed in 1988 which produced a draft text in 1990, in which disciplines related to SPS measures were included in a separate draft agreement.

In that draft text major issues which were raised during mid-term review were settled down but still there remained some issues, which were declared controversial.

In 1991, Dunkel Draft was issued by the Director General of GATT with the intention to move the talks towards completion. The final text of the agreement on the application of sanitary and phytosanitary measures that was approved at the end of the Uruguay Round was largely based on the Dunkel text, which fulfils the general objectives of the Punta del Este declaration.

The main goal of the SPS Agreement is to prevent domestic SPS measures having unnecessary negative effects on international trade so that those cannot be misused for protectionist purposes.

Sanitary and phytosanitary measures apply to domestically produced food or to local animal and plant diseases, as well as to products coming from other countries.

Any discrimination among foreign suppliers must be justified on the basis of their animal and plant health conditions. The SPS acknowledges that governments have the right to take sanitary and phytosanitary measures necessary for the protection of human health.

However, the SPS agreement requires them to apply those measures only to the extent required to protect human health. It does not permit member governments to discriminate by applying different requirements to different countries where the same or similar conditions prevail, unless there is sufficient justification for doing so.

More specifically, the SPS agreement covers measures to protect human or animal life from food borne risks; human health from animal or plant-carried diseases; and animal and plants from pests and diseases.

Therefore, the specific aims of SPS measures are to ensure food safety and to prevent the spread of diseases among animals and plants. These measures can take the form of inspection of products, permission to use only certain additives in food, determination of maximum levels of pesticide residues, designation of disease-free areas, quarantine requirements, import bans, etc.

The agreement provides national authorities with a framework to develop their domestic policies. It encourages countries to base their measures on global standards/guidelines for playing a full part in the activities of international bodies in order to promote harmonization of SPS regulations, and where possible, to conclude bilateral and multilateral agreements on recognition of the equivalence of specific SPS measures.

The agreement requires countries to choose those measures which are no more trade restrictive than required to achieve domestic SPS objectives, provided these measures are technically and economically feasible (e.g. to apply a quarantine requirement instead of a ban).

The SPS agreement recognizes that, due to differences in geographical, climatic and epidemiological conditions prevailing in different countries or regions, it would often be inappropriate to apply the same rules to products coming from different regions/countries.

The agreement does allow countries to introduce sanitary and phytosanitary measures which result in a higher level of protection than that which would be achieved by measures based on international standards, if there is a scientific justification or where a country determines on the basis of an assessment of risks that a higher level of sanitary and phytosanitary protection would be appropriate.

In carrying out risk assessment, countries can use risk assessment techniques developed by the relevant international organizations like the FAO/WHO Joint Codex Alimentarius Commission, the Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention and the International Office of Epizootics.

The agreement provides for special and differential treatment in favour of developing countries and least developed countries (LDCs). It includes, under certain circumstances, longer time-frames for compliance, time-limited exceptions from the obligations of the Agreement and facilitation of developing country participation in the work of the relevant international organizations.

The agreement is not only important for domestic circumstances but also for the export economy. As the agreement was to be implemented to bridge the quality gaps for various agricultural products between developed and developing countries but its true implementation is still to be materialized.

So far, its implementation in practical scenario has added a new term of disguised trade barriers in the dictionary of international trade. In order to achieve the presupposed objective of WTO, to harmonize the international trade, the concerns of developing countries should be dealt in a positive way.