Approaches to Precaution Application within the EU and WTO

The document analyzes the divergence between the EU and WTO regarding the precautionary principle (PP), highlighting that the EU treats it as a constitutional legal principle while the WTO incorporates elements of precaution implicitly and restrictively. It argues that the EU's framework provides superior environmental protection by allowing for permanent measures, a broader interpretation of scientific uncertainty, and the inclusion of societal risk tolerance. The briefing concludes that the UK must retain its EU-inherited approach to precaution to resist deregulatory pressure from trading partners.

• The European Union treats the precautionary principle as a constitutional element of its law, enshrined in Article 191(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which mandates that Community environmental policy "shall be based on the precautionary principle".
• In contrast to the EU, the WTO does not explicitly recognize the precautionary principle; instead, it incorporates related elements into the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement), where precautionary measures are often viewed through the lens of minimizing "negative trade effects".

APA

Mkhize, N., & West, T. (2020). Approaches to Precaution Application within the EU and WTO. ClientEarth. https://www.clientearth.org/media/ei4diszz/ce-approaches-to-precaution-ce-en.pdf

Chicago

Mkhize, Nandi, and Tom West. Approaches to Precaution Application within the EU and WTO. ClientEarth, 2020. https://www.clientearth.org/media/ei4diszz/ce-approaches-to-precaution-ce-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Mkhize |first1=Nandi |last2=West |first2=Tom |title=Approaches to Precaution Application within the EU and WTO |publisher=ClientEarth |date=March 2020 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/ei4diszz/ce-approaches-to-precaution-ce-en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mkhize2020approaches, author = {Mkhize, Nandi and West, Tom}, title = {{Approaches to Precaution Application within the EU and WTO}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2020}, month = mar, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/ei4diszz/ce-approaches-to-precaution-ce-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }