4.1 Introduction

The SPS Agreement establishes a Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the “SPS Committee”) to provide a forum for consultations about food safety or animal and plant health measures which affect trade, and to ensure the implementation of the SPS Agreement. It normally meets three times per year at the WTO headquarters in Geneva. The SPS Committee makes its decisions by consensus. At the WTO, consensus is reached “if no Member, present at the meeting when the decision is taken, formally objects to the proposed decision.”