Towards a Bottom-up SPS Cooperation: An Analysis of Regulatory Convergence in Food Safety Regimes

Abstract

Over the past two decades, under the general framework of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (―SPS Agreement‖) of the World Trade Organization (―WTO‖), countries have devised and revised their food safety laws in an uncoordinated fashion. As a result, a fragmented global food safety governance now stands in contrast to an increasingly globalized food supply chain. Nevertheless, the latest wave of updates of food safety regimes in the United States, the European Union, and China points to several nodes of convergence. This paper elaborates on these converging themes, including their boundaries, and explores the policy implications. It suggests that these unifying themes are areas ripe for international cooperation, a roadmap for other countries’ legal update, a best practice to be diffused for enhanced global food safety, and a call for additional civil society participation.