Food regulation and trade under the WTO: ten years in perspective

This article reviews the performance of the World Trade Organization in the oversight of national regulatory decisions affecting agricultural and food trade. A picture emerges of modest international disciplines on the regulatory decisions of sovereign nations and the need for ongoing improvements. A road map to regulations is presented and empirical assessments of the effects of technical regulation on trade are reviewed. Conflicts over sanitary and phytosanitary barriers raised in the relevant World Trade Organization committee are summarized and formal dispute settlement cases involving technical trade barriers are evaluated. Drawing on these reviews, suggestions are made for improving international food regulation.