This talk will provide a brief overview of a WTO member’s obligations regarding the setting of maximum residue levels and will discuss some of the challenges inhibiting the full implementation of the WTO’s SPS Agreement on matters regarding human health and the food supply. One case study that will be presented is the United States’ challenge to the European Union’s ban on artificial beef hormones.  The case largely focused on whether the European Union was obliged to accept international standards that had been set for the artificial hormones and whether there was a scientific foundation for the European standards. The WTO panel decided that a member, in order to secure an appropriate level of protection, may choose not to base its national standard on an international standard, but that if it does so, the national standard must be based on a risk assessment.  The WTO ruled that the EU failed to conduct an evidence-based assessment that identified a specific health risk.  Europe argued that the risk presented by artificial hormones, even if minute and not appreciable, still constituted a risk and that any risk was unacceptable.  This argument was rejected by the panel because if the risk is not identifiable, it cannot be assessed as is required.  Europe appealed the decision and the subsequent WTO Appellate Body ruling left open the possibility that the EU’s standard was not entirely inconsistent with the SPS Agreement.  This presentation will discuss the direct connection between the residual ambiguity from the beef hormone case and the European Union’s announced intention to ban the use of certain common agricultural pesticides in Europe and to prohibit the importation of food products that have a residue of those pesticides, despite international standards being set for many of those chemicals and despite no characterized or quantified specific risk.   This presentation will summarize the European position, discuss its consistency with the EU’s obligations under the SPS Agreement, and discuss how national standard setting that isn’t based on a risk assessment consistent with the SPS Agreement, could undermine efforts to internationally harmonize chemical and veterinary drug maximum residue levels.

Risk, hazard, human health, and international standards setting for pesticide and veterinary drug maximum residue levels

2019 Fall National Meeting

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