Abstract:Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures based on scientific evidence are formulated to protect consumer’s health and safety of the environment.The wide use of SPS measures in global trade is often suspected to protect trade rather than health.This article aims to explore the protection purpose of SPS measures by using Zero Inflation Negative Binomial Regression(ZINB) model based on the SPS notification data of WTO members on agricultural products in year 2001-2018.It found the health-related variables were significantly related to the number of SPS measures notified by the WTO members.The SPS measures are mainly used to protect the health of consumers,but the suspicion of trade protectionism also exists,typically in developed countries.And the SPS measures tend to provide more trade protection for processing products compared with the primary products.