| Abstrakt: |
International trade has played a part in global obesity epidemic that is causing an upsurge in non-communicable diseases. To address this, governments have sought to provide consumers with more nutritional information about the food that they consume, with the aim of encouraging them to make healthier dietary choices through the use of interpretative front-of-pack (FoP) labelling for packaged food. In the same vein, India released its 2019 draft regulations on interpretative labels, which prescribed 'RED' warning labels forfood products containing high calorie content. Although this was rejected due to a lack of industry consensus, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is again in deliberations, which raises questions under World Trade Organization (WTO) law, particularly the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement). The TBT Agreement upholds the right of member states to adopt measures required for safeguarding human, animal, or plant life at thresholds they deem necessary. As FoP labels affect domestic and imported goods alike, Article 2.1 may be invoked to ensure adherence to the national treatment and most-favoured nation principles. Similarly, Article 2.2 mandates that technical regulations cannot create unnecessary obstacles to international trade. This involves analysing the design and operation of the measure to balance the degree of contribution towards the legitimate objective and the risks of non-fulfilment. Additionally, since the regulations refer to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines for scientific threshold, the use of relevant international standards under Article 2.4 becomes relevant. Based on the TBT analysis, the article concludes with a recommendation to adopt a mandatory framework of health star ratings, while balancing trade liberalisation and members' rights to regulate consumer health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
