The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business.

In recent years the international trade arena has witnessed the growing importance of “within the border” barriers. Standard and technical regulations appear to several commentators as the new critical issue on the international trade agenda. Among these, sanitary and phytosanitary measures occupy a special place because of their crucial aim: safeguardig the health and safety of human beings. From the point of view of economic efficiency, there are very few circumstances in which a departure from free trade can be accepted. Sanitary and phytosanitary measures pose a fundamental challenge to this traditional “economic perspective” and in this paper we try to tackle this challenge. Our analysis tries to disentangle the complexity of sanitary and phytosanitary measures that, uniquely amongst “potential trade obstacles”, mix elements of genuine protection and elements of disguised protectionism

1.Analisys and impact of sanitary and phytosanitary measures: