Transparency of Complex Regulation: How Should WTO Trade Policy Reviews Deal with Sanitary and Phytosanitary Policies?

Protectionism flourishes in the shadow and withers in the sunlight. That is the idea behind the WTO’s Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM) that regularly assesses all measures by which members facilitate or inhibit trade. The more the general public knows about the economy-wide costs of protectionism, the less influential are special interest groups that are threatened by international competition. But trade policy reviews (TPRs) fail to cope with complex regulations whose official purpose is to promote non-trade objectives while nevertheless impeding trade flows. Taking sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures that protect human, animal, and plant health as example, Valentin Zahrnt develops proposals on how the WTO can more effectively monitor and analyze such policies.