Social Rationality Approach To Risk Analysis Essay

In order to understand the functioning of the SPS agreement, the broader scope of multilateral trade liberalization and agreements should be considered (Isaac, 2007). The EU accepted the SPS as part of its signing on to the Uruguay round outcomes. The relevant provisions for agriculture biotechnology in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) arising from the Uruguay round are national treatment (Article I) and most-favored nation (Article III). It should also be noted that the concept of like products should be included as a third provision even though it was not formally acknowledged in the GATT (Isaac, 2007). These provisions state that the treatment of foreign products must be the same as domestic products; that there should not be discrimination between like products from different countries; and that all like …show more content…
(2002) as the scientifically rationality approach and the socially rationality approach. Accordingly, the EU practices the socially rationality approach where science is just one facet of the society, and that society also consists of other stakeholders that should be a part of the decision process. Thus, science has an informative role in the decision process for what can be considered legitimately justifiable, along with the non-science information which is also considered as legitimate factors to be included in the decision to arrive at a legitimate justification. Accordingly, the socially rationality approach uses speculative risk in defining the safety level of new technology resulting in an adoption of zero risk and a perfectly safe market access rule for GM technology. Hence, the use of precautionary principle as trade barrier in the case of insufficient scientific evidence to conduct an appropriate risk assessment is becoming political precaution , allowing the influence of political factors when deciding market access for GM