ABSTRACT
Every day products and technologies involving risks for public health and the environment are traded, at a local, regional, European or international level. This entails that regulators are challenged with the dilemma of allowing free trade and protecting non-trade concerns, such as human health and safety and the environment, which potentially hinder trade. The globalization of trade, in particular under the WTO rules, to a great extent dictates national and EU trade rules as well as the protection of human health and safety and the environment. This forces both national and EU regulators to continuously justify any deviation from free trade in favour of the protection of non-trade interests, in terms of science and scientific evidence. Therefore, trade and non-trade issues are increasingly getting intermingled, as often non-trade, science-based arguments lead to hindering free trade. Moreover, when deciding about protecting non-trade concerns, the question arises as to which level of protection should be set by the regulator, and therefore also, what level of protection and precaution are both acceptable and consistent with the EU and/or international rules.
