Trade of aquatic animals and aquatic animal products: the use of OIE international standards for devising sanitary measures.

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) develops international standards for the prevention, detection and control of aquatic animal diseases as well as the safe international trade of amphibians, crustaceans, fish, molluscs and their products. The Competent Authorities of importing and exporting countries should implement the OIE international standards by adopting the required legislation as this provides the basis for setting sanitary measures that ensure safe international trade, while avoiding unjustified sanitary barriers to trade. Based on an analysis of legislation notified by countries to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the context of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement), the authors explore how and to what extent Member Countries use the OIE international standards when developing sanitary measures. The study develops an analytical framework for collecting and presenting countries' legislation to determine if a direct link can be demonstrated between national legislation and OIE international standards. Results show that OIE international standards are implemented through different categories of legislation which range from more general (those providing a general sanitary framework) to more specific (those setting requirements for the import of aquatic animals and aquatic animal products). However, the study illustrates the difficulty of identifying direct links between countries' legislation and OIE international standards. Nonetheless, this study is the first step in the design of an approach to better understand how OIE international standards are used by Member Countries to devise sanitary measures in the context of international trade. It further notes that increased transparency of national sanitary legislation can facilitate efforts to improve knowledge on the implementation of OIE international standards.