Food Safety

Ensuring the health and well-being of American consumers and working to preserve market access for American agriculture producers are core missions for our office. Along with USDA and USTR, our office supports American farmers and the agricultural sector in direct negotiations with trading partners to reduce or eliminate unfair barriers to trade related to food safety, animal health, and plant health. We also work closely with a number of regulatory agencies to monitor food safety risks from imported products.

AGP’s technical experts in animal health support USDA, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with U.S. engagement on “One Health” issues in multilateral and other international fora. This interagency, multisectoral effort is critical to preventing and containing the global spread of epizootic and zoonotic diseases in animal and human populations.

Protecting Consumer Health and Preserving Market Access

Codex Alimentarius Commission

Codex Alimentarius is the international food standard setting body that seeks to protect consumers worldwide and ensure fair trade practices by developing food standards and guidelines based on scientific analysis. Codex standards are used as benchmarks for national food regulatory policy around the world, particularly in developing countries. As a member of the U.S. Codex Policy Committee, the State Department’s Economic and Business Affairs Bureau works with the USDA’s U.S. Codex Office as well as other U.S. government agencies to facilitate global consensus building on standards to ensure safe food. The Office of Agricultural Policy is a member of the U.S. Codex Technical Committee.

WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

Our office serves on the U.S. delegation to the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures, which meets three times per year in Geneva, Switzerland. Our office works with USTR, USDA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA to advocate for improved market access for U.S. agricultural and food products, call on other countries to abide by their WTO obligations and uphold their commitments to science-based and least trade-restrictive measures, and defend U.S. agricultural and food safety policies to help increase market access for U.S. farmers. The delegation also meets individually with trading partners to discuss trade irritants in a less formal setting. The U.S. Trade Representative leads in WTO SPS Committee negotiations, and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration, and Environmental Protection Agency also play an integral role.