The Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) is a complex agreement under the umbrella of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and concerns the interplay between governmental measures concerning risk for human, animal and plant life or health, the necessary scientific...

International standards are central to domestic rule-making processes. While these standards-developed outside the WTO-are in and of themselves not binding, the SPS Agreement gives them a quasi-binding character as WTO members must provide scientific justification should they wish to deviate...