Private Food Safety and Quality Standards and the WTO

The recent rise in 'non-traditional patterns of global regulation'2 of

food safety and quality begs the question as to whether private food

standard schemes come within the ambit of the international trade law

and, if not, how they may be regulated in order to prevent them becoming

unjustifiable trade barriers. The key question according to Henson is,

'whether private food safety and quality standards come within the

framework of the rights and obligations laid down by the Agreement on

the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS)3 and/or the

Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)4 or whether they might

conceivably do so in the future?