	Background

Sanitary and phytosanitary measures encompass many complex technical and scientific issues. Private sector and government officials are concerned that such measures may be used inappropriately to restrict the growth of U.S. agricultural exports. While the government does not know the full scope of the problem, available data indicate that foreign SPS measures affect a broad range of U.S. processed product, meat, poultry, fruit, vegetable, and grain exports. The second reason that USTR and USDA have had difficulty defining the size of the problem that foreign SPS measures present is because they do not know, of the measures they have identified, how many may be inconsistent with WTO provisions regarding SPS measures. SPS measures can result in a variety of costs to the agricultural industry and to the government. The approach is based on a complex structure of multiple trade and regulatory entities, but no one entity leads overall federal efforts. Some Roles and Responsibilities Not Clearly Defined

Absent overall leadership of federal efforts, some federal entities’ specific roles in addressing individual measures as well as their overall responsibility for addressing trade issues have not been clearly defined. We found that responsible federal entities have had different views about which SPS measures should be addressed and in what order. In response, we revised the first recommendation to emphasize the need for these agencies to work together to develop coordinated goals, objectives, and performance measurements for addressing SPS measures. Trade Agreement Is in Force, but Impact of Provisions Varies

The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS agreement) represents the first time that comprehensive multilateral rules were enacted specifically to cover the use of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures in agricultural trade. Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

The objectives of our work were to provide Congress with information and analysis on (1) the extent to which foreign SPS measures may unfairly restrict U.S. agricultural exports and (2) the federal structure and approach for addressing such measures. To describe and analyze the federal structure and approach for addressing foreign SPS measures, we reviewed studies of the U.S. trade structure for agricultural products and the U.S. regulatory structure for food safety and animal and plant health to determine which entities were responsible for this issue; reviewed responsible entities’ relevant statutory authorities, mission statements, organizational charts, budgets, and staff levels, particularly related to addressing foreign SPS measures; interviewed relevant officials in USDA’s Office of the Secretary; at eight USDA agencies; USTR; FDA; EPA; and State to discuss their Department’s or agency’s role in addressing foreign SPS measures, activities their Department or agency has undertaken to address specific foreign measures, their working relationships with other responsible entities, the extent to which responsible entities have coordinated their efforts, and how key decisions were made in individual cases; attended or reviewed documentation of USDA interagency meetings held to coordinate and share information about the status of efforts to address foreign SPS measures; reviewed structural and procedural limitations of the current approach as well as possible changes that could address certain problems with high-level USDA officials and agency staff, including the Special Assistant for International Trade to the Secretary of Agriculture and the FAS Administrator; reviewed nonpublic agency documents that identified specific problems and suggested possible solutions, including a report by the USDA Office of Inspector General that examined USDA’s response to NAFTA implementation; reviewed documentation of several USDA agencies’ computer data bases that are used to track and manage SPS-related activities; attended APAC and ATAC meetings where concerns about the U.S. government approach to address SPS measures were discussed with USDA and USTR officials; interviewed and obtained documentation from representatives of agricultural trade associations that have requested U.S. government assistance to address SPS measures to assess their experiences, what problems they encountered, and how satisfied they were with U.S. government efforts; and reviewed agricultural trade association documents that identified specific problems in the current structure and approach and suggested possible solutions.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the: (1) extent to which foreign sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures may unfairly restrict U.S. agricultural exports; and (2) federal structure and approach for addressing such measures.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) despite growing concerns that certain foreign sanitary or phytosanitary measures may be inconsistent with World Trade Organization (WTO) provisions and may unfairly impede the flow of agricultural trade, the U.S. government is not well positioned to address this issue; (2) agricultural trade associations and key government officials have identified such measures as an increasingly important issue in agricultural trade; (3) however, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) have had difficulty defining the nature and scope of the problem that foreign sanitary and phytosanitary measures present for U.S. exports, partly because of the complex nature of the issue but for other reasons as well; (4) the available data indicate that foreign sanitary and phytosanitary measures affect the exports of a broad range of commodities, result in a variety of trade effects, and may create additional costs for the U.S. industry and government; (5) the U.S. government approach for addressing foreign sanitary and phytosanitary measures has been evolving in the 2 years since WTO provisions on sanitary and phytosanitary measures took effect; (6) however, the current approach exhibits certain weaknesses; (7) the federal structure for addressing foreign sanitary and phytosanitary measures is complex; (8) at least 12 federal trade, regulatory, and research entities have some responsibility for addressing such measures, but no one entity is directing and coordinating overall federal efforts; (9) some entities' roles and responsibilities for addressing such measures are not clearly defined, and these entities have had difficulty coordinating their activities; (10) federal entities lack comprehensive data on which sanitary and phytosanitary measures are being addressed or what progress has been made to address them; (11) they have not developed a process to jointly evaluate measures and determine which ones the government should address, and in what order; (12) once the government decides to challenge a measure, multiple entities with conflicting viewpoints have made it difficult to develop a unified approach to address measures and decide which cases should be referred to WTO for dispute resolution; and (13) coordinated goals, objectives, and performance measures related to federal efforts to address SPS measures do not yet exist.