Sanitary and phytosanitary measures and agreements

Sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) are rules that countries put in place to protect people and plants from diseases, pests, and other harmful organisms. These rules can include things like food safety regulations to ensure that the food we eat is safe to eat, or quarantine measures to prevent the entry of harmful pests or diseases into a country.

Sometimes, countries might have different SPS measures, which can create problems when trading goods with one another. For example, if one country has different regulations on food safety than another country, it might make it difficult for them to trade food products with each other.

To address this issue, countries have created international agreements known as sanitary and phytosanitary agreements, or SPS agreements. These agreements help countries to harmonize their SPS measures and make it easier to trade goods with one another.

In other words, SPS agreements help countries to agree on a set of common rules for protecting people and plants, which makes it easier for them to trade goods with one another without worrying about different regulations getting in the way. It's like creating a set of rules that everyone agrees on, so that nobody gets left out and everyone can play nicely together.