Why do countries impose sanitary and phytosanitary restrictions? To protect their agricultural and environmental resources or their public health. How do they determine what restrictions to impose, and how do they ensure those restrictions are consistent with their international obligations? These are more complex questions. This lesson explores how individual countries make decisions on animal and plant health issues, both within an international framework and within local conditions and governance structures. It also introduces a fictional example of a request for access to the U.S. market that we will follow through the market access process.