1、1960 单词， 3700 汉字 外文翻译 原文 Barriers against Agricultural Exports from Pakistan: The Role of WTO Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement Material Source: The Pakistan Development Review 42 : 4 Part II Winter 2003 pp. 487-510 Author: KHALID MUSTAFA I. INTRODUCTION There has been growing recognition that Sa
2、nitary and Phytosanitary SPS agreement can impede trade in agricultural and food products. Pakistan, in particular experiences problems in meeting the SPS requirements of developed countries and, it is claimed, this can seriously impede its ability to export agricultural and food products. Attempts
3、have been made to reduce the trade distortive effects of SPS measures through, for example, the World Trade Organisation WTO SPS Agreement, although it is claimed that current initiatives fail to address many of the key problems experienced by Pakistan and other developing countries. The present pap
4、er explores implications of Sanitary and Phytosanitary SPS agreement on exports of agricultural and food products from Pakistan. It identifies the problems that Pakistan faces in meeting SPS requirements and how these relate to the nature of SPS measures and the compliance resources available to Gov
5、ernment of Pakistan and the supply chain. The paper examines the impact of SPS agreement on the extent to which SPS measures impede exports from Pakistan. It identifies the problems that limit participation of Pakistan in the SPS agreement and its concerns about the way in which it currently operate
6、s. II. SALIENT FEATURES OF THE SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY SPS AGREEMENT The SPS agreement concerns the application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures?in other words, food safety and animal and plant health regulations. The agreement recognises that governments have the right to take Sanitary and
7、 Phytosanitary measures but that they should be applied only to the extent necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health and should not arbitrarily or unjustifiably discriminate between members where identical or similar conditions prevail. In order to harmonise Sanitary and Phytosanita
8、ry measures on as wide a basis as possible, members are encouraged to base their measures on international standards, guidelines and recommendations where they exist. However, members may maintain or introduce measures, which result in higher standards if there is scientific justification or as a co
9、nsequence of consistent risk decisions based on an appropriate risk assessment. The Agreement spells out procedures and criteria for the assessment of risk and the determination of appropriate levels of Sanitary or Phytosanitary protection. It is expected that members would accept the Sanitary and P
10、hytosanitary measures of others as equivalent if the exporting country demonstrates to the importing country that its measures achieve the importing countrys appropriate level of health protection. The agreement includes provisions on control, inspection and approval procedures. Given that Pakistan
11、implements qualitatively or quantitatively lower SPS standards than developed countries, in principle the SPS Agreement should help to facilitate trade from Pakistan to developed countries by improving transparency,promoting harmonisation and preventing the implementation of SPS measures that cannot
12、 be justified scientifically. Much of this is dependent, however, on the ability of the government to participate effectively in the Agreement. The Agreement itself tries to facilitate this by acknowledging the special problems that Pakistan and many other developing countries face in complying with
13、 SPS measures and allowing for special and differential treatment. III. KEY ISSUES ARISING FROM THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SPS No work has been undertaken to study the impact of Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement of WTO on export of agricultural products from Pakistan. Few studies have however addresse
14、d the issue of SPS measures and developing country exports directly, although in most cases the related cost of compliance and impact of trade flows is not quantified. SPS measures are claimed to be an impediment to exports of, for example: fish, spices, livestock products and horticultural products
15、. More theoretical work has demonstrated that developing countries find it difficult to trade with developed countries due to differences in quality equipments, which in turn reflect prevailing consumer demand or the nature of government regulation(Murphy and Shleifer, 1997. An attempt was undertake
16、n to quantify the costs of compliance with SPS measures in Bangladesh. It was found that the cost of upgrading sanitary conditions in the Bangladesh frozen shrimp industry to satisfy EU and US hygiene requirements amounted to $ 17.6 million, mainly incurred for upgrading plants over the years 1997-9
17、8. This gave an average expenditure per plant of $ 239,630. The natural industry cost required to maintain HACCP was estimated to be $ 2.2 million per annum. Further, the Government of Bangladesh was estimated to have spent $ 283,000 over this period and predicted an expenditure of $ 225000 per annu
18、m to maintain a HACCP monitoring programme Cato, 1998. The degree to which SPS requirements impeded exports of agricultural and food products from African countries was assessed through a survey of Codex Alimentarius contact points. Of the countries that responded, 57 percent indicated that exported
19、 products were rejected following border inspection. The main reasons were microbiological spoilage or contamination. Although all these countries inspected food products prior to export, most considered that financial constraints limited the effectiveness of these procedures and that, in particular
20、, available testing and inspection facilities were inadequate Mutasa and Nyamandi, 1998. The cost of SPS-related projects supported by the World Bank was examined as an indicator of the resources required for the development of SPS controls, both domestically and related to trade, in many developing
21、 countries. For example, the cost of achieving disease and pest free status to enable Argentina to export meat, fruits and vegetables was reported to have been $ 82.7 million over the period 1991-96. Similarly, the cost of upgrading hygiene standards in slaughterhouses in Hungary over 1985-91 was es
22、timated to be $ 41.2 million Finger and Schuler, 1999. Sri Lanka faced SPS related quality problems in its produce, particularly spices in terms of presence of mould, high moisture level and aflatoxin.The quality related problems were mainly due to cultural practices and technological limitations. T
23、he estimated average volume loss was about 5,500 metric tons during 1999-2000 and the estimated value of foreign exchange loss due to non-compliance was reported to be US$ 2.9 million per year. The net loss of employment was 2,400 persons every year as a consequence of the loss of export volume. Fur
24、ther, the cost of compliance with quality requirements in terms of providing training to 70,000 traders was about US$ 1.954 million Hearth, 2001. A broader indication of the impact of SPS requirements on developing country exports of agricultural and food products are provided by data on rejections
25、following border inspection in developed countries. At the current time, these data are only systematically collected and publicly available for the United States. Over the period June 1996 to June 1997, there were significant rejections of imports from Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbe
26、an due to microbiological contamination, filth and decomposition. The cost of rejection at the border was also considerable, including loss of product value, transport and other export costs, and product re-export or destruction FAO, 1999. This indicates considerable problems that developing countri
27、es have in meeting basic food hygiene requirements. There is strong need for application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures that include enforcement of laws which protect human, animal or plant life and health based on scientific evidence, environmental considerations and use of child labour in
28、the production process for enhancing export of agricultural products from Pakistan. Appropriate measures are required for curtailing illicit trade practices and ensuring quality of exports in terms of purity of the product, environmental considerations and labour standards in order to comply with em
29、erging requirements of WTO satisfactorily. IV. PARTICIPATION IN THE SPS AGREEMENT Although the majority of low and lower middle-income countries are members of the WTO, the rate of membership62 percent was found significantly lower than amongst upper middle or high income countries 83 percent and 92
30、 percent respectively. Likewise the majority of low and lower middle income countries were reported to be the members of the three major international standards organisations, Codex Alimentarius, OIE and IPPC, although less than 30 percent were reported as members of WTO and all three of these organ
31、isations. The SPS Agreement lays down certain requirements that aim to ensure transparency in the implementation of SPS measures in member countries. Members are required to establish specific contact points to facilitate communication regarding SPS measures. This involves firstly, a single national
32、 enquiry point, which is responsible for responding to queries from a single national notification authority, which is responsible for all procedures associated with notification of new or amended SPS measures. It was reported that only 65 percent of low and lower middle income countries had specifi
33、ed an enquiry point and only 59 percent had specified a national notification authority until June 1999. These proportions included 29 least developed countries, which were not required to comply until 2000. The most significant constraint of Pakistan on effective participation in the SPS Agreement
34、is judged to be its insufficient ability to assess the implications of developed country SPS requirements following notification.Insufficient ability to participate effectively in the dispute settlement procedures and to demonstrate that domestic SPS measures are equivalent to developed country requ
35、irements are considered as major constraints. These constraints clearly relate to the level of access to scientific and legal expertise, which is an important problem for Pakistan, reflecting to a large extent its limited financial resources. VI. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE SPS MEASURES FOR PAKISTAN (a) Economic Dependency SPS measures can effectively force exporters in Pakistan and various institutions that represent them, into very specific production and trading methods.To service export trade, firms in
