Article

The Role of Public and Private Standards in Regulating International Food Markets

January 2006

Authors:

University of Guelph

While much of the focus of the economics literature has been on the role of public food safety and quality standards both as policy instruments and as non-tariff barriers to trade, it is evident that private standards are playing an increasing role in the governance of agricultural and food supply chain. This paper provides an overview of the evolution of private food safety and quality standards, outlining how and why business-to-business and private collective standards have come to play an increasingly dominant role in determining the action of firms in the agricultural and food sectors, and the ways in which such standards influence trade flows. While there has been very little empirical analysis of the trade impacts of food safety and quality standards, the paper contends that they can play a contrasting role in both reducing and enhancing trade in agricultural and food products. At the same time, however, it is evident that private standards fall outside of the governance structures established by the WTO, raising challenges for the future role of the SPS and TBT Agreements.

Fruit Safety Regulations in the Transatlantic Region: How are Africa’s exports faring with the regulations?

Article

Sep 2022
J POLICY MODEL

Olayinka Idowu Kareem

The regulations of fruit trade for safe consumption are taken seriously in the EU and US markets to protect the health of the consumers, animals, plants and environmental safety, and thereby reduce health expenditures. The fruit safety regulations as trade policy measures could be either trade-promoting or -impeding. The extensiveness and intensiveness of fruit safety regulations in these markets often have consequences for exporters from Africa and their desire to attain sustainable economic development. The effects of fruit safety regulations are heterogeneous across economic agents. To this end, many stakeholders in Africa’s food system have perceived compliance with these food regulatory measures as necessary conditions to access the developed countries’ markets, particularly in the EU and US. Besides, the competitiveness of Africa’s fruit exports has been impacted by the preponderance of the measures despite its comparative advantages in the fruits sub-sector. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of the EU and US sanitary and phytosanitary measures on Africa’s fruit exports. The empirical strategy involves the use of an augmented gravity model which explore the disentangling of these impact at the extensive and intensive margins of exports. Given the nature of trade data and specifically for this study, the zero trade flows are considered at both margins of exports for 45 African countries from 1995 to 2017. This study finds that the US market is more trade-impeding to Africa’s fruit exports than the EU market. Thus, Africa needs policies tweaking in the fruit value chain quality infrastructure, fruits’ quality and standards enforcement, capacity development, continuous update and modernisation of the fruits’ safety laws, directives and/or regulations. This will enhance the fruits’ quality to propel their access to the transatlantic markets.

Viabilidad económica de la implementación de buenas prácticas agrícolas en la producción de cebolla.

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2022

El objetivo de este trabajo fue estimar la brecha en los costos de las unidades de producción que implementan buenas prácticas agrícolas (BPA) en la producción de cebolla y las que no, en dos de los principales estados productores de esta hortaliza en México a través de un análisis de costos y la construcción de unidades representativas de producción (URP), con el propósito de contribuir al desarrollo de estrategias para impulsar la adopción de protocolos de buenas prácticas agrícolas (BPA) entre los pequeños y medianos productores de cebolla.. Los resultados evidencian que las URP que cuentan con certificación en BPA son más grandes, tienen mayores rendimientos, incurren en costos fijos unitarios ($.t-1) más altos y costos variables más bajos en comparación con las URP que no cuentan con certificación en BPA; estos parámetros le permiten, a las URP certificadas, recuperar hasta 2.25 pesos por cada peso que invierten, mientras que las URP que no cuentan con certificación recuperan 16 centavos. El apoyo para la certificación en BPA podría ayudar a los agricultores relativamente pobres a acceder de manera rentable a los mercados de exportación, proporcionando así una estrategia de desarrollo para algunos segmentos de la población rural.

European private food safety standards in global agri-food supply chains: a systematic review

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2021

Private food safety standards have become an important governance mechanism in contemporary food supply chains. While much has been written about private standards from the perspectives of different academic fields, there has never been a dedicated literature review to examine their interaction with global food supply chains. In this systematic review, 45 peer reviewed articles on private food standards, selected through extensive searches in four academic databases are critically appraised. Our analysis reveals that the most studied European private food safety standards are owned by retail conglomerates and therefore place the retail sector in a position of influence in the supply chain. These standards influence supply chain structures, market access, and the efficiency of food safety management systems. They also challenge the traditional relationship shared by actors in the supply chain with public authorities and the World Trade Organization. In the recent years, their scope has expanded to include topical issues such as environmental sustainability, worker safety, and animal welfare. Overall, the review suggests that European private food safety standards alter the operations of modern agri-food supply chains to accommodate consumer wishes while allowing the retail sector to exert its influence without taking on additional legal and economic liability.

EU Bioeconomy Economics and Policies: Volume II

Book

Jan 2019

This two-volume book provides an important overview to EU economic and policy issues related to the development of the bioeconomy. What have been the recent trends and what are the implications for future economic development and policy making? Where does EU bioeconomy policy sit within an international context and what are the financial frameworks behind them? Volume II explores the EU food sector, as well as food law and legislation, rural development in the EU, bio-based economy strategy, the circular economy and and bioenergy policies.

EU Biofuel Policies for Road and Rail Transportation Sector

Chapter

Nov 2019

This chapter is about biofuel policies governing EU terrestrial transportation. We provide an overview of important historical and policy milestones fringing the path of ethanol and biodiesel production and consumption in the European Union. By discussing selected topics related to the biofuel production, we aim to lead the reader through the maze of interactions of the biofuel policies with other sectors of the EU bioeconomy. Initially food crops were seen as a promising candidate for a renewable biofuel feedstock; later developments at the global scale got EU policymakers thinking about the possible adverse effects of biofuel policies on food commodity prices and indirect land-use changes. These considerations resulted in capping first-generation biofuels and recently promoting second-generation (advanced) biofuels instead.

Future Developments in the EU Bio-Based Economy

Chapter

Nov 2019

Justus H.H. Wesseler

This chapter reviews trends and developments in the EU bio-based economy. Three main trends are discussed: new developments in gene editing, related EU policies and the implications for the bioeconomy and the bio-based economy in particular; food products derived from cell cultures and new protein sources; and urban farming. The trends in food production indicate a move towards urban agriculture. Rural areas will be challenged to develop alternatives to food production. The circular bioeconomy can be of support and provide an opportunity for refreshing the debate on EU agriculture and rural development.

Necessarily or Sufficiently Trade-Impeding for Africa? 1 The Agri-food Safety Regulations

Article

Jan 2019

Olayinka Idowu Kareem

The dearth of empirical studies on Africa’s food export effects of the food safety regulations in the European Union has really affected evidence-based policies that could stimulate compliance. This study investigates whether the technical regulations necessarily or sufficiently constitute trade-impediment for Africa. This study adopts an augmented Helpman, Melitz and Rubenstein two-step selection model for all the applicable food safety regulations in this market. Three commodities are selected; Banana, Grape and Tomato at the HS-6-digit level covering the period from 1995 to 2016. Owing to the heterogeneity in exporters’ capacity and exporting performance as well as their size structure, this study finds that the food safety regulations are necessarily trade-impeding for the grapes and tomatoes but not for banana at the decision to export stage. However, at the intensity of the commodities’ exporting, the measures become sufficiently trade-enhancing due to quality standards upgrading, compliance and certification of exports.

Food Credence Attributes: A Conceptual Framework of Supply Chain Stakeholders, Their Motives, and Mechanisms to Address Information Asymmetry

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2023

Food credence attributes (e.g., food safety, organic, and carbon neutral production methods) are quality characteristics of products that cannot be assessed by buyers at the point of sale without additional information (e.g., certification labels). Hence, the ability to access credence attributes of a particular product can result in a situation termed as asymmetric distributed information among supply chain stakeholders (e.g., producers, processors, wholesalers, retailers, consumer) where one party of a market transaction is in possession of more information about a product than the other party. This situation can lead to potential inefficiencies, e.g., misinformation, risk of food borne illness, or opportunistic behavior such as fraud. The present study sought to develop a conceptual framework that describes a) the motivation for key stakeholders to participate in the market for food credence attributes, b) the type of food credence attributes that key stakeholders provide, and c) current mechanisms to address the issue of information asymmetry among the stakeholders in the food system. The study was conducted using an integrative literature review. The developed framework consists of two components: a) the food supply chain and b) the attribute assurance system among which multiple links exist. The findings suggest that retailers, processors, NGOs, and government authorities are influential stakeholders within the supply chain of food credence attributes by imposing food quality standards which can address information asymmetry among food actors. While the credence attribute assurance system (e.g., food standards, third party food attribute assurance providers) can potentially address the issue of asymmetric information among market stakeholders, a range of issues remain. These include food standards as a potential market entry barrier for food producers and distributors, limited food standard harmonization, and communication challenges of food attribute assurance (e.g., consumers’ signal processing, signal use and trust). The syntheses presented in this study contributes to stakeholders’ (e.g., supply chain actors, scientists, policy makers) improved understanding about the components of the credence food system and their integration as well as the drivers for change in this system.

STANDARD JOURNA OF THE ETHIOPIAN STANDARDS AGENCY

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2021

Melese Temesgen

Globally improving the food safety and regulatory system is an important health and economic goal for all countries. It has been noted that food quality and safety regulating laws in Ethiopia faced challenges to meet the supplying of safe and quality to export market. In the first place, the existing standards are not well disseminated with in all relevant sectors for implementation and they focus primarily on the inspection of final products. In relation to this the findings of the critical review showed there is great emphasis on standards as a key to regulate the safety and quality of products in global and national level. Also most of the developed and developing countries follow multi-sector approaches to implement regulation. In the other hand regulation must comprehend all the supply chain from sources, transportation, storage, distribution and marketing of food item and referring standards in regulation is one of the tool to implement the regulation effectively. Thirdly standards should be supported by adequate research and innovative strategies to bring immense changes and benefits in terms of economic, social, research and growth. In addition the review point out that regulating the safety and quality of conventional food items in the supply chain, it is needed to consider regulation of the street foods which are becoming major dish for many consumers, particularly for middle and low income peoples. Therefore, this critical review is prepared to address issues related with standards, regulation, drawbacks and possible recommendations to integrate standards with research, innovative and behavior change activities to meet food quality and safety requirement in a changing world.

Thesis Oiconomy system Pim Croes

Thesis

Full-text available

Jan 2021

Pim Croes

COMPREHENSIVE IN-SUPPLY CHAIN LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF THE PREVENTATIVE COST-BASED EXTERNALITIES OF PRODUCTS.

Implementation Of The Brc Food Safety Management System In Latin American Countries: Motivations And Barriers

Article

Jun 2019
FOOD CONTROL

Purpose Companies in the food sector use a food safety management system (FSMS) to ensure the safety of their products, and thereby minimize any risk to consumers; nevertheless, FSMSs have been used less extensively in Latin America. The purpose of this study was therefore to analyze the motivations and barriers facing Latin American food companies that implement an FSMS such the British Retail Consortium (BRC) standard, as well as to identify any significant differences across Latin American countries. Methodology The data were collected from a sample of 223 food-production plants certified according to BRC standards in 14 countries in South and Central America; the study involved an exploratory factor analysis and a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Findings The results show that all the companies implementing a BRC standard are exporters, and their main motivations are to guarantee product safety and consumer welfare. Four components that group the motivations have been identified: ethical, efficiency, legitimacy and commercial. In the case of barriers, we have found they are mainly financial, and related to factors in the business environment. The first of these barriers is present regardless of the country where the plant is located, while the second barrier is linked to country-specific conditions. Originality and implications This is one of the first research studies conducted in Latin America on an FSMS such as BRC, aiming to fill a lacuna by analyzing the motivations and barriers involved. In addition, we show that there may be differences in these factors between countries and with the existing literature. Finally, we seek to provide an initial platform for informing future studies and developing models that consider the particular dynamics of food safety in Latin America.

Certification, Market Construction, and The Global Value Chain: A Comparative Analysis of Citrus Imports into The European Union and The United States

Thesis

Jun 2019

Anne Mook

This dissertation applies a strong theoretical orientation and combines global political economy of development with environmental studies to address how transnational firms negotiate with producers, governments, and certifiers to shape social-environmental, market, and liability regulation for imported citrus. Understanding the governance of global value chains is important because trade between developing and industrialized countries has grown rapidly, requiring regulation of the transnational conditions of production. As 80 percent of products are now produced, manufactured, and sold in two or more countries, third-party certification schemes have emerged and are gradually coming to play a central role in supplementing transnational regulation. Since national governments have limited power to regulate the conditions of production abroad, third-party certification has been described as a response to the global “environmental governance gap”. However, we still know relatively little about what factors drive the size and shape of certified markets. This dissertation investigates what drives demand for certified production of citrus, whether the construction of certified citrus markets is an example of varieties of capitalism or world polity, and to what extent the structure of the global value chain predicts adoption of particular types of regulation. The present study uses a mixed method approach to evaluate the relevance of these theories for the construction of certified markets. First, I compare the role of US and Dutch political economies in constructing markets for third party certification. I qualitatively analyze the import requirements of US and Netherlands (within the EU) government organizations and the top ten retailers from each country. Results indicate that both public and private regulations are increasingly shaping the demand for certified products. Second, using an original dataset based on a comparative telephone survey of US and Dutch citrus importers, I quantitively analyze how socio-environment, market, and liability attitudes, varieties of capitalism variables, and value chain variables predict the sourcing of certified citrus. The survey results show that importer’s rate market incentives as more important than socio-environmental or liability factors as drivers. Importers in the Netherlands are also more likely to buy and to receive requests from buyers for certified citrus. Finally, selling to retailers and receiving requests from buyers are the most important value chain predictors for market construction.

Better Trade for Sustainable Development: The role of voluntary sustainability standards

Research

Full-text available

Sep 2021

n this report we focus on a specific tool, namely Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) which comprise of certification schemes, labeling programs and private standards. VSS aim to make global value chains, from producer to consumer, more sustainable by taking into account social and environmental requirements in the production process. VSS also often link developing countries (where many producers are based) to developed countries. This report discusses in-depth the possibilities and limitations of VSS to make international trade more sustainable, in particular with regards to developing countries development opportunities. We first introduce the key concepts of trade, global value chains, sustainable development, their interrelatedness and their importance for developing countries. We focus on the rise of international trade and the changing nature of trade which is characterized by the dominance of global value chains. The emergence of global value chains allows producers in developing countries to be integrated in global economic dynamics which can contribute to their economic development. In addition, global value chains allow for the diffusion of social and environmental standards throughout production processes. VSS play an important role in this diffusion of social and environmental standards. We argue that global value chains can be governed in a way which enhances economic, social and environmental ‘upgrading’, i.e. a process by which negative social and environmental consequences are addressed in global value chains and which contributes to better protection of social and environmental standards. We show that upgrading through the governance of global value chains directly allows producers in developing countries to access global markets and reap their potential benefits contributing in this way to economic development in developing countries.

Content analysis of tripadvisor reviews on safe tourism certified restaurants during the Covid-19 pandemic

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2022

Covid-19 outbreak, which emerged in December 2019, deeply affected the economies. During the Covid-19 outbreak, there was a significant decline in restaurant revenues, foreign currency inflows and employment. The outbreak has caused radical changes in lifestyles and consumer behaviors. The universe considered in this study comprised users who ate at Safe Tourism Certified restaurants in Turkey and commented on the Tripadvisor website. In this study, the content analysis method, which is used in qualitative research methodologies, was applied. In this context, a total of 922 reviews for 98 Safe Tourism Certified restaurants on the Tripadvisor website between 11 March 2020 and 20 April 2022 were examined with the help of Nvivo 12 program. It was determined that 80.6% of the customer comments were positive. The most emphasized factors in the comments were taste, price, attitude and behavior of the employee, view, food and beverage quality, cleanliness, punctuality, employee care and Covid-19 security measures. According to the findings, suggestions for the sector and future research were presented.

Food Safety Management System (FSMS) Model with Application of the PDCA Cycle and Risk Assessment as Requirements of the ISO 22000:2018 Standard

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2022

The management strategy requires a shift to change-oriented management. These management approaches are process- and activity-oriented and are based on the assumption that the future is difficult to predict and ineffective for modeling. The aim of this study is to present a model of food safety management using a process approach based on the PDCA cycle set in the international standard ISO 22000:2018 by supplementing the regulatory requirements for food safety management. After analyzing the aspects of food safety management, a model is proposed for risk analysis and assessment at the operational and organisational level. In this study, the FMEA method for risk assessment of storage of foods of plant origin was used. The research can be useful for producers and traders in the planning and development of food safety management systems according to the requirements of the ISO 22000:2018 standard. The implementation of documented rules for compliance with the requirements of the international standard is aimed at the management and control of processes at the operational and organisational level in the activities of companies. Process management and data analysis is a direction to improve activities aimed at minimizing food safety risks.

What Makes Farmers Follow the Standard? The Role of Regional Characteristics, Local Alternatives, and Policy Support in Non-State Market Driven Governance in the Arava, Israel

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2022

Supermarkets have become a major actor in driving a shift to more sustainable agricultural practices throughout the agri-food value chains, using certification schemes and other instruments known as non-state market driven (NSMD) gov-ernance. This paper explores what factors may affect farmers' willingness to join such mechanism once it is in place, based on the case study of pepper growers in the Arava region in southern Israel. Based on an extensive farmers survey and interviews with other stakeholders in the region, we find that regional characteristics such as export dependency, homogeneity in regional production patterns, prior experience and farm level awareness are tied with NSMD adoption. Adoption is also made possible by the availability of services offering alternative practices to the farmers, and the different ways public policy supports the shift, and in turn is affected by it.

Nagoya Protocol and Private Standards - A Study on How Voluntary Sustainability Standards Include Access and Benefit Sharing Obligations in their Criteria and on their Potential to Help the Protocol´s Implementation

Thesis

Full-text available

Feb 2020

Alessandro Monaco

This Master thesis investigates the actual and potential relation between private standards and the Nagoya Protocol (NP), analysing how voluntary sustainability standards incorporate the NP’s provisions in their criteria and which opportunities they offer to help the Protocol’s implementation. At the beginning of the research, the NP’s characteristic features are investigated, breaking down its Access and Benefit sharing obligations (ABS) and reporting the main defects detected by scholars. Then, private standards’ theories are used to develop a theoretical framework to assess private standards’ efficacy in relation to the NP’s needs. To evaluate the current relation between the NP and private standards, a content analysis over a research sample of 31 voluntary sustainability standards is performed employing the software ATLAS.ti. The results show that the standards rarely consider the Nagoya Protocol in their criteria, with only 7 of them showing direct or indirect connections. Overall, however, the latent potential of private standards in relation to the Protocol is considered promising. The theoretical framework developed to assess private standards’ efficacy, in light of the content analysis results, shows that voluntary sustainability standards could tackle several NP’s criticisms. Assuming the perspective of involved stakeholders, the theoretically achievable improvements are presented. Collaboration between stakeholders (user and provider countries’ public authorities; private standards creators; indigenous people; users) is identified as a key factor to reach the best results.

Quality standards between co-existence and coordination: Lessons from the French durum wheat case study

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2021

The objective of this article is to explore how value chains adapt quality standards governance to account for societal issues such as sustainable development. It aims to better understand how public and private standards co-exist or hybridize within sectors by focusing on two kinds of quality: ‘intrinsic’ product quality and environmental quality. It offers a new analytical grid combining the literature on innovation economics with that on value chain governance. A case study on the French durum wheat sector for couscous and pasta production is offered to test this grid. To this end, we conducted interviews with the main representatives of the French chain. The results show that there is international competition on product standards and that environmental standards are struggling to emerge in France. These results are discussed in terms of public/private design, homogenization/differentiation processes, vertical/horizontal relationships and links between social values and economic interests. We emphasize that broadening the range of quality attributes impacts the ways in which a value chain organizes itself.

Trust in electronic banking with the use of mobile phones for user satisfaction

Conference Paper

Full-text available

Apr 2021

Mobile technologies play an important role in the development of organizations. The banking industry has become the global financial engine. When combined, they seek to generate a competitive advantage and attract more users, the objective of this research is to determine the influence of users' Trust in their satisfaction when they use e-Banking via mobile phone. As a methodology, a survey is applied to 98 users in northeast Mexico who use a commercial banking computer application and an inferential analysis with SmartPLS. The main results are, trust is an essential factor in the use of this information technology to perceive its usefulness and ease of use; however, the principal contribution is that the use of e-banking provides the most satisfaction to users.

Global decisions versus local realities: Sustainability standards, priorities and upgrading dynamics in agricultural global production networks

Article

Full-text available

May 2021

Voluntary sustainability standards (VSSs) in global production networks (GPNs) have grown significantly in prominence. Existing research largely assumed that VSSs create linear upgrading outcomes for all GPN actors and has studied VSSs from the point of adoption in the GPNs, rather than a broader range of stages in their lifecycle. To address these limitations, and building on literature around power and agency in GPNs, we develop the constellation of priorities (CoP) model to unpack the diverse and often diverging boardroom (Northern lead firm) and local (Southern supplier) priorities involved in such standards. Through in-depth fieldwork on horticulture in Kenya and cocoa in Nicaragua across the VSS lifecycle, we find significant divergences in priorities between farmer groups in both countries and lead firms in the UK and Germany. We demonstrate analytically and empirically that diverging priorities coupled with power asymmetries produced contestations, leading to simultaneous economic and environmental downgrading, and social upgrading.

KAJIAN STANDAR NASIONAL INDONESIA PERANGKAT TELEKOMUNIKASI

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2021

p>Di Indonesia, SNI perangkat telekomunikasi mulai dibuat dan diberlakukan pada tahun 1990. Selama kurun waktu tersebut banyak perangkat telekomunikasi yang sudah ditinggalkan karena perkembangan teknologi sehingga SNI perangkat telekomunikasi sudah tidak bisa diaplikasikan. Untuk menyesuaikan dengan perkembangan teknologi saat ini maupun kesesuaiannya dengan Pedoman PSN 03 : 2018, Pedoman PSN 02 : 2018 dan Perka BSN 04 : 2016 maka beberapa SNI perangkat telekomunikasi yang telah tersusun dari tahun 1990 perlu dikaji ulang. Metode identifikasi dilakukan pada 32 SNI terkait perangkat telekomunikasi terhadap judul SNI, SNI masih digunakan/diperlukan, kesesuaian dengan Pedoman penulisan SNI, acuan normatif/referensi, kesesuaian dengan pedoman adopsi standar internasional, metode uji dan topik/isi substansi SNI. Dari hasil kajian 32 SNI, ada 8 SNI (25%) yang bukan lingkup komtek 33-02 Telekomunikasi dan ada 3 SNI (9,375%) yang tidak ada dokumennya sehingga tidak bisa diidentifikasi. Sehingga total ada 21 SNI yang bisa dikaji dengan 14 SNI merupakan SNI produk, 3 SNI merupakan SNI istilah/definisi dan 4 SNI adalah SNI lain-lain. Dapat disimpukan bahwa sebagian besar SNI perangkat telekomunikasi diabolisi, hal ini disebabkan standar tersebut tidak digunakan lagi karena perkembangan ilmu pengetahuan dan teknologi. Sebagian kecil SNI direvisi antara lain pada judul dan metode uji.</p

What Drives Market Construction for Fair Trade, Organic, and GlobalGAP Certification in the Global Citrus Value Chain? Evidence at the Importer Level in the Netherlands and the United States

Article

Mar 2021

Since national governments have limited power to regulate the conditions of production abroad, voluntary certification schemes have come to play a significant role in transnational regulation of many global supply chains, particularly in the food sector, where multiple regulatory issues are in play and different certification schemes compete. However, we still know relatively little about the political-economic factors that shape the construction of certified citrus markets for these competing standards. Based on an original dataset from a comparative survey of US and Dutch importers, this paper investigates factors that shape the construction of certification markets for citrus, focusing on the construction of markets for different kinds of certification schemes including Fair Trade, Organic, and GlobalGAP certification. The paper investigates from a comparative perspective whether the construction of markets differs across the US and Dutch political economies. The results show both the enduring effects of national political economies and the importance of global value chain dynamics. Across competing schemes, the industry-sponsored business-to-business certification systems have outcompeted consumer-facing label systems.

The Trade Impact of Voluntary Sustainability Standards: A review of empirical evidence

Article

Jul 2020

Niematallah Elamin

Behind the scenes of quality labels: Tripartite regulation and overlapping markets From the Europeanization to the globalization of organic agriculture

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2017

A Global Institution on Animal Protection

Article

Full-text available

May 2020

Carolina Fumagalli

This work addresses the need for a global public institution in favour of animals. In particular, it focuses on the design of a new international organization on animal protection by taking into consideration three models: the EU Platform on Animal Welfare, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF). Referring to these models, the mandate of the organization on animal protection is drafted, membership and participation criteria are considered, as well as its mechanisms of functioning. The collaboration with other international organizations is foreseen, and common fields of interest are identified. Particular attention is dedicated to the transition towards an economic and sustainability model that considers animals as sentient living beings with fundamental interests in the preservation of their life and dignity, rather than as exploitable resources. In order to address the current global challenges related to animal protection, and progress towards effective universal rights (not only for humans), the creation of a public international institution on animal protection is needed.

To the market and back? A study of the interplay between public policy and market-driven initiatives to improve farm animal welfare in the Danish pork sector

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2020
AGR HUM VALUES

Lars Esbjerg

This article discusses the interplay of public policy and market-driven initiatives to improve farm animal welfare (FAW). Over the last couple of decades, the notion of ‘market-driven animal welfare’ has become popular, but can the market deliver the FAW that consumers and politicians expect? Using the Danish pork sector as the empirical setting, this article studies efforts to improve private FAW standards following changes to general regulations. The analysis shows that ethical misgivings regarding the adequacy of current and prospective FAW standards are tempered by the economic considerations that guide the practices of some actors. The study also shows that efforts to improve FAW standards are contingent on collaboration and coordination across globalised markets among actors with divergent interests. The findings have important implications for market practices and public policy in relation to FAW.

Analysing the policy space for the promotion of healthy, sustainable edible oil consumption in India

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2019

Objective To identify opportunities and challenges for the promotion of healthy, sustainable oil consumption in India. Design We use a framework for policy space analysis which distinguishes between policy context, process and characteristics. Setting We focus on the Indian edible oils sector and on factors shaping the policy space at a national level. Participants The study is based on the analysis of policy documents and semi-structured interviews with key experts and stakeholders in the edible oils sector. Results We find opportunities associated with the emergence of multisectoral policy frameworks for climate adaptation and non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention at a national level which explicitly include the oils sector, the existence of structures for sectoral policy coordination, some supportive factors for the translation of nutrition evidence into practice, and the possibility of integrating nutrition-sensitive approaches within current state-led agricultural interventions. However, the trade-offs perceived across sustainability, NCD prevention and food security objectives in the vegetable oils sector are considered a barrier for policy influence and implementation. Sustainability and nutrition advocates tend to focus on different segments of the value chain, missing potential synergies. Moreover, policy priorities are dominated by historical concerns for food security, understood as energy provision, as well as economic and strategic priorities. Conclusions Systematic efforts towards identifying synergistic approaches, from agricultural production to distribution of edible oils, as well as increased involvement of nutrition advocates with upstream policies in the oils sector, could increase policy influence for advocates of both nutrition and sustainability.

Fairtrade credentialism: towards understanding certified producer organizations' perceptions of Fairtrade as a credential

Article

Jul 2019

Fairtrade is a transnational voluntary labelling initiative that aims to upgrade the social, economic, and environmental conditions of producers in developing countries. In this paper, we systematically translated, coded, and analysed open-ended responses from a global survey of Fairtrade producers to explore how Fairtrade operates as a credential. The credentialism literature sheds light on Fairtrade's ability to create social and economic mobility, the operation of positive and negative selection processes and the hidden curriculum. We conclude with research and policy recommendations, including the need for the research community and Fairtrade International to track and monitor initial conditions of Fairtrade producers and measure progress over time to improve understanding of how Fairtrade operates as a credential and structures the social and economic mobility of developing country producers.

Food Safety Requirements for Produce Growers: Retailer Demands and the Food Safety Modernization Act

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2019

The 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act established “Standards for Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption,” commonly known as the “Produce Rule” (PR). Interviews with nine food retailers form a case study of the retail sector’s food safety requirements for produce suppliers and how they might change in response to the PR, which began phased implementation in January 2018. Although third party audits of food safety practices are commonly demanded by retailers, the PR does not require these audits and provides exemptions and variances for smaller growers or particular commodities. This study, one in a series examining how growers adapt to evolving food safety requirements, found it likely that retailers already requiring third-party audits will continue to do so. Responses also indicated retailers will likely continue to impose food safety requirements on growers uniformly, rather than spend the time and resources to understand and adhere to the nuances of the PR’s compliance criteria. The interviewed retailers noted they lost suppliers in the past when new food safety standards were introduced, and they expect some growers may stop supplying them when the PR takes effect. However, they believe the PR will not drastically affect their growers but will have the greatest impact on growers outside their supply chains.

Food Safety Management Systems In Indian Seafood Export Industry-The Case of Kerala

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2019

Indian Fishery trade has expanded considerably in recent decades and this has been an important source of foreign exchange for the country with total earnings of US$ 5.5 billion in 2014-15.In the interests of food safety and consumer protection, increasingly stringent hygiene measures have been adopted at national and international trade levels. Food safety regulations regime has completely restructured the seafood value chain in India. There has been a proliferation of sector oriented standards and Codes of Practices (COPs) incorporating a range of standards relating to all the elements that make up the food management chain. Major constraints faced by the seafood exporters in Kerala to comply with the above standards and code of practices were identified. Addressing food safety concerns and its implementation in India will require the joint efforts by the government and the private sector.

PENGARUH PENERAPAN STANDAR PRIVAT TERHADAP AKSES PRODUK INDONESIA KE PASAR GLOBAL

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2018

Standar privat merupakan standar yang didesain oleh entitas di luar pemerintah, bisa dari entitas bisnis maupun organisasi non profit . Penerapan standar privat, sekarang semakin diakui dan meningkat yang dapat memberikan dampak positif maupun dampak negatif dalam perdagangan global. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui pengaruh penerapan standar privat terhadap akses produk Indonesia ke pasar global. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan penelitian ex-post facto dengan analisis regresi dan korelasi untuk mengungkap hubungan antara penerapan standar privat terhadap nilai ekspor perdagangan dilihat dari variabel-variabel yang mempengaruhinya. Variabel-variabel yang digunakan untuk mengetahui pengaruh penerapan standar privat pada perdagangan global adalah tingkat kepedulian, pengetahuan, implementasi dan komitmen. Sedangkan nilai perdagangan diperoleh dari nilai perdagangan ekspor Indonesia. Penerapan standar privat mempunyai pengaruh yang sangat kuat terhadap nilai perdagangan global. Pengaruh dari penerapan dan pemenuhan terhadap persyaratan standar privat adalah memberikan nilai tambah dan posisi tawar dalam perdagangan global sehingga dapat memberikan keuntungan bagi perusahaan. Biaya teknis dan non teknis dari penerapan standar privat menjadi faktor perlu diperhatikan dan dibandingkan dengan keuntungan dari keberhasilan perdagangan dalam jangka panjang apabila suatu perusahaan bermaksud memasuki ceruk pasar yang didalamnya ada penerapan standar privat.

IMPLICATIONS OF DEVELOPED-NATION STANDARDS REGIMES FOR AGRO-FOOD TRADE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT: CASE INVESTIGATIONS OF WELFARE IMPACTS IN VEGETATIVE CROPS

Thesis

Full-text available

Jan 2012

Jason Scott Entsminger

Trade has historically been targeted as a way out of poverty and towards economic stability for developing nations. In recent years the export of fresh fruits and vegetables has been especially targeted to achieve development in agricultural communities. Increasingly, however, these exports face more stringent sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements abroad which act as technical barriers. This thesis applies the price wedge methodology within a spatial partial equilibrium to calculate the tariff-equivalent of SPS measures. These are then used to examine changes in producer surplus of exporting nations. Analysis is within the market for fresh pineapples exported from Vietnam and Nicaragua to the United States and Europe. It finds, overall, that European SPS regimes present higher effective rates of protection and have more negative impacts on producer surplus among nations producing for export than those of the United States. The market for broccoli and cauliflowers is also investigated, but due to model outcomes tariff-equivalents of SPS regimes are not calculated. In order to implement the spatial partial equilibrium model, this work first estimates econometrically elasticities of supply and demand for most of the selected markets. It also presents an 12 avenue for more in-depth analysis in the future which examines the welfare impacts on these producers as a result of structural change associated with adaptation to SPS measures in export markets abroad.

Bibliography

Article

May 2022

Enrico Partiti

The book studies emergence and consolidation of voluntary sustainability standards (VSS); private standards defining sustainability-related product features. The book takes stock of their success and their potential in mediating between economic and non-economic concerns of global production. Despite their private and voluntary nature, VSS generate profound consequences for the producers seeking certification, for the consumers purchasing certified products, and for others affected by their standards. VSS are used by public authorities in the EU as a functional complement to public measures regulating global value chains. At this juncture of market proliferation and public use of private regimes, this book studies how public authority can control, coordinate and review VSS. It studies how the regulation of VSS could unfold through substantive and procedural legal requirements in the domain of European Union law and World Trade Organisation law, as well as through the incentives offered by VSS employment in public measures.

Gains in sustainability using Voluntary Sustainability Standards: A systematic review

Article

Oct 2022

The ongoing growth of concerns with regard to the sustainability of the planet has led to the increasing expansion on international agendas of commercial certification schemes based on Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSSs). This has influenced public planning and policy-making, and stimulated the interest of researchers. The application of VSSs plays an important role in the transition of supply chains toward sustainability. These initiatives promote appropriate social, economic, and environmental practices for the production of goods and services, as well as meeting the demands of environmentally-conscious consumers. However, the diverging definitions of the concept, and the contradicting interpretations of the impacts of VSSs exacerbate the complexity of the analysis of their real impacts on Global Value Chains. The present study is based on a systematic review of the literature on VSS based on the Systematic Search Flow method. The principal objectives of the study were to identify the prevailing groups of researchers on the VSS theme and their perceptions regarding the sustainable gains with the adoption of these standards. A number of different terms have been used in the literature on standards, although “Voluntary Sustainability Standards” has been consolidated by its use in recent years, and provides a focal point for the analysis of standards of sustainability. Two different streams of thought were identified here. These streams complement each other. The first considers VSSs to be a barrier to the access of producers to major consumer markets, while the second stream of thought argues that VSSs fulfill, stimulate, and objectify sustainability. The results of the review show that the gains of adopting a VSS are diverse, with the economic pillar being the most valued, in general. Based on the distinct pillars of sustainability, our analysis contributes to a robust and differentiated understanding of the topic of VSS by identifying an ample range of examples that consider the gains in sustainability accruing to the application of VSSs. The analysis also establishes valuable insights and guidelines for the expansion of research in this field.

Competition and cooperation in the market of voluntarysustainability standards

Chapter

Nov 2015

In an era of increased reliance on private regulatory bodies and globalised economic activity, standardisation is the field where politics, technical expertise and strategic behaviour meet and interact. International standard-setting bodies exemplify the rise of transnational governance and the challenges that it brings about relating to institutional choice, legitimacy, procedural and substantive fairness or transparency. This book takes a more empirical-based approach focusing on the mechanics of international standard-setting. It constitutes a multidisciplinary inquiry into the foundations of international standard-setting, an empirically under-researched yet important area of international informal lawmaking. Contributors expertly examine the peculiarities of international standardisation in selected issue-areas and legal orders and shed light on the attributes of international standard-setters, allowing comparisons among standard-setting bodies with a view to identifying best practices and improve our understanding about standardisation processes.

Multiplicity of sustainability standards and potential trade costs in the palm oil industry

Article

Sep 2022

The growing impact of the global production of agricultural commodities has created new regulations that aim at a more sustainable trade. Sustainability standards (SS) are essential tools for transnational trade governance because they increase the possibility of recognizing products from sustainable sources. However, there is currently a proliferation of SS in almost every industry. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to establish how standard interactions such as competition, cooperation, and overlap shape the impact of multiplicity on trade costs. We apply the framework to the palm oil industry by using the information on three aspects of SS schemes: the requirements, the institutional design, and the cooperation strategies. Our results indicate that the North–South multiplicity in the palm oil market is characterized by high overlap, but there exists a balanced co‐opetition in the standard market. As the cooperation strategies between the SS schemes are very shallow, there might be potential trade costs associated with the SS multiplicity in the palm oil industry. [EconLit Citations: Q01 Sustainable Development, Q17 Agriculture in International Trade, Q18 Agricultural PolicyFood Policy].

When private governance impedes multilateralism: The case of international pesticide governance

Article

Apr 2022

Private standards play an increasingly important governance role, yet their effects on state‐led policymaking remain understudied. We examine how the operation of private agricultural standards influences multilateral pesticide governance with a particular focus on the listing of substances under the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, a treaty‐based information‐sharing mechanism that allows countries to refuse hazardous chemical imports. We find that private agricultural standard‐setting bodies use the Rotterdam Convention's pesticide list to develop their own lists of banned substances. This alters the Rotterdam Convention's intended role, impeding efforts to add substances to the treaty, as attempts by private actors to impose stricter governance than state actors can undermine the potential for international state‐based governance to become more stringent. We characterize this as a “confounding interaction” whereby institutional linkages between actions by public and private actors with broadly aligned goals results in unexpected negative consequences for governance.

As características da produção normativa sobre insolvência transnacional vis-à-vis a regulamentação do comércio global

Chapter

Full-text available

Jan 2021

Sabrina Maria Fadel Becue

1. Comércio Internacional. 2. Organização Mundial do Comércio (OMC). 3. Organização para a Cooperação e o Desenvolvimento Econômico (OCDE). 4. Gênero. As opiniões da presente publicação representam pontos de vista pessoais das autoras e foram emitidas com base nas melhores informações disponíveis até o início de 2020. Nenhuma parte desta obra poderá ser reproduzida ou transmitida por qualquer forma e/ou quaisquer meios (eletrônico ou mecânico, incluindo fotocópias e gravação) ou arquivada em qualquer sistema ou banco de dados sem a permissão escrita da organização Women Inside Trade. A violação dos direitos autorais é crime estabelecido na Lei nº 9.610/1998 e punido pelo artigo 184 do Código Penal.

The trade effect of private standards

Article

Apr 2019

Anna Andersson

Recent changes in the agrifood sector have fuelled the use of private food standards. These standards are voluntary and generally serve as a risk management tool. This paper presents an analysis of the relationship between private food standards and trade. Specifically, we analyse the effect of certification to GlobalGAP on EU15 imports of fresh fruits and vegetables at product level using a gravity-type model with fixed effects. We find that certification to GlobalGAP has a positive effect on both the extensive and the intensive margin of trade.

Entreprises bioalimentaires et qualification de la qualité. Les enjeux de la proximité

Chapter

Full-text available

Oct 2016

Patrick Mundler

Sustainability Standards and International Trade: The Case of Palm Oil持続可能性認証と国際貿易：パーム油の事例

Article

Aug 2020

Etsuyo Michida

Interaction between private sustainability standards and international trade has attracted much attention in the past decades. This paper reviews literature from different disciplines and discusses how market-driven private standards affect producers in exporting countries through trade. A large body of literature is found for interaction between public regulations and international trade. However, literature hasn’t discussed much about differences between public regulation-trade linkage and private standards-trade linkage. Literature review focuses on how findings on public regulations are relevant to private standards. Finally, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a palm oil sustainability standard, is used to exemplify the discussion.

Sustainability Standards and Global Governance Experiences of Emerging Economies: Experiences of Emerging Economies

Book

Full-text available

Jan 2020

This open access book focuses on the issue of sustainability standards from the perspective of both global governance frameworks and emerging economies. It stems from the recognition that the accelerated pace of economic globalization has generated production and consumption patterns that are generating sustainability concerns. Sustainability standards (and regulations) are increasingly being used in a bid to make global consumption and production more sustainable. Given the dense inter-connectedness of economic affairs globally, the use of sustainability standards has become a concern of global governance, who face the challenge of achieving a balance between the use of standards for genuine sustainability objectives, and not allowing them to turn into instruments of protectionism or coercion. The emerging economies, given their increasing engagement with the global economy, are most impacted by the use of sustainability standards. The emphasis of ‘emerging economies’ in this book is retained both by using case studies from these economies and by collating perceptions and assessments of those located in these economies. The case studies included span sectors such as palm oil, forestry, food quality, vehicular emissions and water standards, and address the problems unique to the emerging economies, including capacity building for compliance with standards, adapting international standards in domestic contexts and addressing the exclusion of small and medium enterprises etc. Complex interfaces and dynamics of a global nature are not limited to the thematic of this book but also extend to the process through which it was written. This book brings together insights from developed as well as emerging economies (Germany, India, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan, Mexico and China). It also brings together scholars and practitioners to jointly ponder upon the conceptual aspects of the global frameworks for sustainability standards. This book is a very useful resource for researchers and practitioners alike, and provides valuable insights for policy makers as well.

The Changing Landscape of Sustainability Standards in Indonesia: Potentials and Pitfalls of Making Global Value Chains More Sustainable

Chapter

Full-text available

Jul 2020

Clara Brandi

This chapter investigates the changing landscape of voluntary sustainability standards in Indonesia and discusses potential trade-offs between the socio-economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development in the context of smallholder certification in the palm oil sector. On the one hand, there is a concern that sustainability standards might weaken the socio-economic situation of smallholders by preventing them from having access to global value chains and markets that demand certification. On the other hand, whereas certification can give rise to socio-economic benefits for smallholders taking part in certification schemes, these benefits may have undesirable consequences for environmental sustainability. The chapter studies these trade-offs and discusses how the synergies between economic, environmental and social sustainability can be promoted.

Corporate Social Responsibility: The Interface Between the Private Sector and Sustainability Standards

Chapter

Full-text available

Jul 2020

Jorge Antonio Pérez-Pineda

This chapter contextualizes the evolution of the private sector in the last decades and examines how this process has led to sustainability standards becoming an important tool for aligning commercial activity with the sustainability agenda. On the one hand, the global governance approach appears to be a potentially useful one for guiding private sector behaviour with the help of a set of globalized norms and regulations. On the other hand, corporate social responsibility is put forth as a useful instrument for activating sustainability standards in different processes and stages of private sector activity. These approaches are reviewed in the context of a particular country case—Mexico. Based on the existing literature as well as on interviews with representative bodies related to CSR and sustainability initiatives, it is suggested that in ensuring that the private sector engages with and contributes to the 2030 Agenda, frameworks such as CSR can prove useful in facilitating the implementation of standards and regulations to meet with larger social goals and expectations.

Global and National Food Safety and Quality Standards: Implications and Impacts for Farmers in Thailand and India

Chapter

Full-text available

Jul 2020

The aim of this chapter is to contribute to the understanding of how public and private actors in developing countries react to global and national standards and to analyse the implications of diverse standards on smallholders in the fruit and vegetable value chain. To do this, an extensive literature review and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in the Thai and Indian fruit and vegetable sector have been carried out. Results show that it is the wealthier and more educated small-scale farmers who adopt and benefit from the private standards, indicating that the poorest segment of smallholders has not benefited from donor interventions. In addition, the vast majority of smallholders serve domestic markets or lower-value export markets, where private standards are not a requirement.

Soybean Supply Chain Management and Sustainability:A Systematic Literature Review

Article

May 2020
J CLEAN PROD

As a globally consumed agricultural product, soybeans have long been one of the most important commodities in the current international market. In this regard, the governance of the global soybean supply chain has become one of the central themes in both industry and academia. However, existing scholarly works focusing on sustainability issues and mechanisms for better governance in the soybean chain are rare. Moreover, the relationship among soybean supply chain governance mechanisms remains unclear. In this study, we conducted a systematic review of the existing literature to identify key themes or topics and to develop a conceptual framework to guide future research. Based on our inclusion criteria and by considering the Scopus database, we identified and reviewed 55 articles published between 2000 and 2019. In our analysis, four themes were identified in soybean supply chain management: drivers (e.g., land-use conflict), global value chain governance (e.g., REDD+), consequences (e.g., reduced CO2 emissions) and potential barriers (e.g., low market demand). Finally, a conceptual model was proposed that elaborates the linkage of the themes, and a research agenda was proposed to direct studies in the future.

Public and Private Food Standards

Chapter

Nov 2019

Maria Cecilia Mancini

The globalization of food supply chains and a series of food crisis in the past few decades have increased the need for new instruments that allow to credibly transfer information about the credence attributes of food products along the supply chain. Public and private food standards provide such instruments. First, different ways of classifying standards are discussed. Next, the chapter provides examples of business-to-consumer and business-to-business food standards. The final section discusses the interplay between public and private standards. In conclusion, the proliferation of private schemes of food safety and quality in recent years has shifted intervention away from the citizen to the consumer and from public responsibility to the market.

Heterogeneous consumers and differentiated food markets: Implications for quality signaling in food supply chains

Article

Aug 2019

Jill E. Hobbs

en The Fellow's address begins by noting several recent consumer food trends and the changing way in which we perceive value‐added. I then focus on the topic of heterogeneity in consumer behavior, reviewing contributions from the literature that enhance our ability as economists to model and measure heterogeneity. Supply chain responses to consumer heterogeneity are examined, including a discussion of information flows within supply chains and the role of certification and verification. I close with a consideration of policy implications flowing from consumer heterogeneity. Abstrait fr Ce discours de Fellow souligne plusieurs tendances récentes en matière d'aliments destinés aux consommateurs et l’évolution de la manière dont nous percevons la valeur ajoutée. Je me concentre ensuite sur l'hétérogénéité du comportement des consommateurs, en passant en revue les contributions de la littérature qui renforcent notre capacité, en tant qu'économistes, à modéliser et à mesurer l'hétérogénéité. Les réponses des chaînes d'approvisionnement à l'hétérogénéité des consommateurs sont examinées, notamment une discussion sur les flux d'informations au sein des chaînes d'approvisionnement et le rôle de la certification et de la vérification. Je termine sur un examen des implications politiques découlant de l'hétérogénéité des consommateurs.

ENHANCING THE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS OF INDONESIAN FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRY THROUGH FACILITATING THE ADOPTION OF QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAMS

Article

Mar 2018

p>A survey of 102 small to medium sized food processors and manufactures in DKI, West Jawa and Banten province, Indonesia has been conducted for to know the quality assurance (QA) program. The survey was carried out with method to identify and to distribute a questionnaire and also to interview to small and medium scale food industry respondents selected that develope the QA program. The results of the study reveals that the main reasons for implementing one or more quality assurance (QA) programs in the food business were satisfy/meet customers requirements, to seek the highest standard of quality and food safety, provide cotinous quality control and maintenance, reduce legal liability, improve the business structure, facilitatenew market entry and/or to expand market size and sales. Conversely, the main reasons for not implementing one or more QA programs were : the cost of QA implementation and maintenance of QA programs to high, there was no need or no legal requirement to implement QA, the businees was too small. There was insufficient time, a lack of information or lack of resources. The failure to implement QA systems has the potential to exclude small and medium sized food processors and manufactures from many domestic and international markets.</p

"Consumers don't see tigers dying in palm oil plantations": a cross-cultural comparative study of UK, Malaysian, and Singaporean consumer views of palm oil

Article

May 2019
Asian Geogr

In the past decade, palm oil has become the most produced and consumed vegetable oil globally. In view of the growing global demand for palm oil, promoting consumption of the most “sustainable” form of palm oil is necessary to mitigate the known environmental and social impacts of unsustainable production. In this study, we compare consumer awareness, knowledge, and perceptions of palm oil and its sustainability amongst consumers from three countries: Malaysia, and Singapore and the UK. Employing a combination of an online survey, interviews and focus groups and building on consumer behavior theories, we found a number of key differences and similarities between the three nationalities. Malaysians were more aware of palm oil and held more positive views compared to the other two nationalities, while all were relatively unfamiliar with the concept of “sustainable palm oil”. Only a small proportion of respondents from each country ruled out purchasing sustainably certified palm oil products. However, price was a determining factor and most respondents from the three countries were unwilling to pay more for “green” products. Considering the disconnect felt by consumers towards the realities of palm oil production, we argue for improved consumer-facing information on the socio, economic and environmental impacts of their consumption patterns. Finally, the study highlights the importance of place in shaping consumer views of palm oil and thus a need to better understand how positive information campaigns about the benefits of sustainable production can sit alongside localized information flows of palm oil.

Quantifying the Impact of Technical Barriers to Trade: Can It Be Done?

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2001

This paper provides an overview of the policy debate and methodological issues surrounding product standards and technical barriers to trade. There has been a rising use of technical regulations as instruments of commercial policy in unilateral, regional, and global trade contexts. These non-tariff barriers are of particular concern to developing countries, which may bear additional costs in meeting such mandatory standards. We begin with a review of the policy context driving demand for empirical analysis of standards in trade. We then provide an analytical overview of the role of standards and their relationship to trade. We review methodological approaches that have been used to analyze standards. The main interest lies in advancing techniques that are practical and may be fruitfully extended to the empirical analysis of regulations and trade. The contribution of the paper is to discuss a set of concrete steps that could be taken to move forward a policy-relevant and practical research program of empirical work. Such steps would include (1) administering firm-level surveys in developing countries, (2) devising methods for assessing the trade restrictiveness of standards, and (3) establishing econometric approaches that could be applied to survey and micro data for understanding the role of standards in exports.

International Trade and Industrial Up-Grading in the Apparel Commodity Chain

Article

Full-text available

Jun 1999
J INT ECON

Gary Gereffi

This article uses a global commodity chains perspective to analyze the social and organizational dimensions of international trade networks. In linking international trade and industrial upgrading, this article specifies: the mechanisms by which organizational learning occurs in trade networks; typical trajectories from assembly to OEM and OBM export roles; and the organizational conditions that facilitate industrial upgrading moves such as the shift from assembly to full-package networks. The empirical focus is the apparel industry, with an emphasis on Asia.

Standardization, Compatibility, and Innovation

Article

Full-text available

Feb 1985
RAND J ECON

There are often benefits to consumers and to firms from standardization of a product. We examine whether these standardization benefits can "trap" an industry in an obsolete or inferior standard when there is a better alternative available. With complete information and identical preferences among firms the answer is no; but when information is incomplete this "excess inertia" can occur. We also discuss the extent to which the problem can be overcome by communication.

Standards and Agro-Food Exports from Developing Countries: Rebalancing the Debate

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2004

The proliferation and increased stringency of food safety and agricultural health standards is a source of concern among many developing countries. These standards are perceived as a barrier to the continued success of their exports of high-value agro-food products (including fish, horticultural, and other products), either because these countries lack the technical and administrative capacities needed for compliance or because these standards can be applied in a discriminatory or protectionist manner. The authors draw on available literature and work in progress to examine the underlying evidence related to the changing standards environment and its impact on existing and potential developing country exporters of high-value agricultural and food products. The evidence the authors present, while only partial, suggests that the picture for developing countries as a whole is not necessarily problematic and certainly less pessimistic than the mainstream"standards-as-barriers"perspective. Indeed, rising standards serve to accentuate underlying supply chain strengths and weaknesses and thus impact differently on the competitive position of individual countries and distinct market participants. Some countries and industries are even using high quality and safety standards to successfully (re-)position themselves in competitive global markets. This emphasizes the importance of considering the effects of food safety and agricultural health measures within the context of wider capacity constraints and underlying supply chain trends and drivers. The key question for developing countries is how to exploit their strengths and overcome their weaknesses such that they are gainers rather than losers in the emerging commercial and regulatory context.

Product Liability and Microbial Foodborne Illness

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2001

This report examines how product liability law treats personal injuries attributed to microbially contaminated foods. The risk of lawsuits stemming from microbial foodborne illness and the resulting court-awarded compensation may create economic incentives for firms to produce safer food. It is not known how many consumers seek compensation for damages from contaminated foods because information about complaints and legal claims involving foodborne illness is not readily accessible, especially for cases that are settled out of court. Reviewing the outcomes of 175 jury trials involving foodborne pathogens, the analysis identifies several factors that influence trial outcomes, while noting that the awards won by plaintiffs tend to be modest.

Regulatory Protectionism, Developing Nations and a Two-Tier World Trade System

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2000
Brookings Trade Forum

Richard Baldwin

This paper provides a survey on studies that analyze the macroeconomic effects of intellectual property rights (IPR). The first part of this paper introduces different patent policy instruments and reviews their effects on R&D and economic growth. This part also discusses the distortionary effects and distributional consequences of IPR protection as well as empirical evidence on the effects of patent rights. Then, the second part considers the international aspects of IPR protection. In summary, this paper draws the following conclusions from the literature. Firstly, different patent policy instruments have different effects on R&D and growth. Secondly, there is empirical evidence supporting a positive relationship between IPR protection and innovation, but the evidence is stronger for developed countries than for developing countries. Thirdly, the optimal level of IPR protection should tradeoff the social benefits of enhanced innovation against the social costs of multiple distortions and income inequality. Finally, in an open economy, achieving the globally optimal level of protection requires an international coordination (rather than the harmonization) of IPR protection.

Local enterprises in the global economy: Issues of governance and upgrading

Book

Jan 2004

Hubert Schmitz

'Local Enterprises in the Global Economy is an important contribution to a debate that is currently gathering momentum throughout the social sciences. At the core of this debate is the role of regions in economic development processes, not only in the more economically advanced countries of the world, but also - and more urgently - in low- and middle-income countries. With its emphasis on the need for local economic development strategies to deal with intensifying global opportunities and threats, this book pushes the debate forward into hitherto largely uncharted territory.'- Allen J. Scott, University of California, Los Angeles, US This book opens a fresh chapter in the debate on local enterprise clusters and their strategies for upgrading in the global economy. The authors employ a novel conceptual framework in their research on industrial clusters in Europe, Latin America and Asia and provide new perspectives and insights for researchers and policymakers alike.

'The economics of networks'

Article

Jan 1996
INT J IND ORGAN

Nicholas Economides

We analyze the salient features of networks and point out the similarities between the economic structure of networks and the structure of vertically related industries. The analysis focuses on positive consumption and production externalities, commonly called network externalities. We discuss their sources and their effects on pricing and market structure. We distinguish between results that do not depend on the underlying industry microstructure (the macro approach) and those that do (the micro approach). We analyze the issues of compatibility, coordination to technical standards, interconnection and interoperability, and their effects on pricing and quality of services and on the value of network links in various ownership structures. We also briefly discuss the issue of interconnection fees for bottleneck.

Costs of monitoring food safety and vertical coordination in agribusiness: What can be learned from the British Food Safety Act 1990?

Article

Jan 1992

The British Food Safety Act 1990 may significantly affect the structure of agribusiness. The most important aspect of the new act is the introduction of the “due diligence” defence clause. Food companies must prove that they exhibited due diligence in ensuring that food in their possession conformed to the provisions of the act. This may significantly increase the monitoring costs facing food companies. As a result, alternative forms of vertical coordination that minimise the costs of compliance with the act may evolve. Agribusiness companies need to be aware of the potential impact of the due diligence clause on monitoring costs and policy makers need to consider the implications for industrial structure when framing food safety legislation. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

How Quality Management Metasystems Are Affecting the Food Industry

Article

Sep 1998

The future competitiveness of the U.S. food industry depends on its ability to deliver high-quality products at competitive prices to domestic and international markets. Recent developments in the establishment and operation of quality management metasystems are having important effects on this competitiveness. Their use has the potential to enhance product quality, simplify contractual relationships, demonstrate compliance with regulations, and improve responsiveness to customers. Their use is also requiring novel internal organization and market linkages between firms.

Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity

Article

Oct 1993

From Challenge to Opportunity Transforming Kenya's Fresh Vegetable Trade in the Context of Emerging Food Safety and Other Standards in Europe

Article

Jan 2003

Steven Jaffee

Soft Law and Institutional Practice in the European Community

Article

Jan 1994

Francis Snyder

The contributions of Emile Noël to the construction of Europe are wide-ranging and numerous. Many are well-known, especially during his administrative work, first in the Council of Europe, then as Secretary-General of the Commission of the European Communities, and most recently as President of the European University Institute.2 Less evident to the public eye perhaps is his significant contribution to Community law scholarship. The fruit of long experience, it combines careful observation, a finely tuned sense of diplomary, exemplary self-awareness, and keen insights into administrative practice, thus enriching considerably our understanding of the law and institutions of the European Community.3 These articles remain essential reading for all interested in Community institutions. With some diffidence, it may be suggested that a similar account of the European University Institute would be welcome. Here I wish to pay tribute to the way in which Emile Noël has woven so skilfully an intricate tapestry of these distinctive strands..

The Development of Private Fresh Produce Safety Standards: Implications for Developing Mediterranean Exporting Countries

Article

Jun 2004
FOOD POLICY

Integration into global markets offers the potential for more rapid growth and poverty reduction for poorer countries. However, market barriers within advanced economies to agricultural imports have made it harder for developing countries to take full advantage of this opportunity. This article examines the impact of increasing demands for food safety and quality by European food retailers, and how the fundamental structure and culture of supplier organisations required by European retail chains are a major entry barrier for developing Mediterranean fresh produce exporting countries, and for developing countries in general. The long-term solution for such countries to sustain an international demand for their products lies in structural, strategic and procedural initiatives that build up the trust and confidence of importers/retailers in the quality and safety assurance mechanisms for their produce.

Choice and Efficiency in Food Safety Policy

Article

Jan 1995

John Antle

New! Improved? The Transformation of the Gobal Agrifood System

Article

Sep 2004

Abstract The last decade has witnessed a dramatic rise in global trade in food and agricultural products. While much analysis has focused on the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in this process, we argue that other forms of regulation are of far greater consequence. In this paper, we examine changes in the agrifood system made possible by the WTO and we assess the rise of global private standards. We argue that the new global rules, regulations, and institutions implemented by the WTO have facilitated the ability of the private agrifood sector to consolidate and expand internationally. Of particular importance is the growing influence of food retailers as they rapidly become more global and oligopolistic. The article concludes that today it is the private sector, and retailers in particular, together with private standards that are at the center of the transformation of the global agrifood system.

Costs of monitoring food safety and vertical coordination in agribusiness: What can be learned from the British Food Safety Act 1990?

Article

Nov 1992
AGRIBUSINESS

Adoption of ISO 9000 Quality Assurance Standards by South African agribusiness firms

Article

Jun 2000
AGRIBUSINESS

A postal survey was conducted in 1998 among 92 South African agribusiness firms to establish the extent of adoption of the ISO 9000 quality assurance standards, reasons for certification, and the costs and benefits of adopting these standards. Almost 36% of respondent firms were ISO 9000 certified. The desire to improve customer service, a basis for quality improvement, and the need to improve operational efficiency (reduce wastage) were the most important factors influencing certification. Respondents reported financial, managerial, and production benefits following certification. Two-group and three-group discriminant analyses were performed. Results revealed that ISO 9000 certified firms tended to be larger, established firms with parent company affiliation, manufacturing products derived from agricultural output and exporting to developed countries. Most non-ISO 9000 certified firms had adopted an alternative quality assurance system. The most important variable distinguishing ISO 9000 adopters from adopters of alternative quality assurance systems was turnover (firm size). [Econ-Lit citations: L100, L150, L200] © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Mandatory versus voluntary approaches to food Safety

Article

Dec 1999
AGRIBUSINESS

Kathleen Segerson

Food safety policy is currently based on a combination of voluntary measures undertaken by producers and regulatory measures imposed, for example, by the US Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration (e.g., mandatory HACCP systems). This article addresses the question of whether reliance on voluntary approaches is likely to lead to adequate consumer protection. Drawing on recent literature on the choice between voluntary and mandatory approach to environmental protection and standard models of product liability, the article develops an analytical framework to determine the conditions under which firms are likely to invest in food safety voluntarily. The results suggest that for goods for which consumers can readily detect safety characteristics, market forces can create incentives for voluntary provision of safety. However, for goods for which consumers cannot readily detect food risks, market forces are not likely to be sufficient to afford adequate protection. Even in such a context, however, direct government regulation is not always necessary. The threat of the imposition of mandatory controls (possibly coupled with financial inducements for undertaking voluntary approaches) may provide firms with sufficient incentives to invest in food safety in an effort to avoid those controls. However, if firms do not respond, regulators must be prepared to follow through on their threats and impose a regulatory system of protection. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Economic Determinants of Food Safety Controls in Supply of Retailer Own-branded Products in the United Kingdom

Article

Mar 1998
AGRIBUSINESS

Whilst major multiple food retailers in the UK have gained commercial advantage from increased sales of own-branded food products, this trend has exposed them to greater risks of product failure. In a bid to manage these risks, multiple food retailers have implemented complex and very costly food safety control systems in the procurement of own-branded products. Using a transaction costs framework, the paper suggests that multiple food retailers have encouraged the development of third party agencies as institutions through which the costs associated with food safety controls can be reduced, whilst maintaining an acceptable risk of product failure. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Determinants of retailers’ decisions to use public or private grades and standards: Evidence from the fresh produce market of São Paulo, Brazil

Article

Jun 2005
FOOD POLICY

This paper models retailers’ choices between public and private grades and standards (G&S) and their means of administering them. It focuses on the firm-specific factors influencing the decision. Increasing use of private G&S worldwide, particularly by large, powerful retail chains has implications for competition, participation, and the effectiveness and efficiency of public policy regarding G&S. Drawing from a study of fresh produce markets in São Paulo, Brazil, the paper shows that the importance of the product in the firm’s activities or sales, market power, scale of operations, and investment in brand capital and reputation are key firm-specific factors encouraging the use of private G&S regimes over public. Important contextual determinants are the strategic objective of the standard, the institutional environment, and the characteristics of the product and market. A range of formal and informal, private and public methods for administering G&S was found. The paper discusses policy implications of the results, focusing on issues of substitutability and complementarity between public and private G&S regimes.

Incentive Structures for Food Safety and Quality Assurance: An International Comparison

Article

Mar 2002
FOOD CONTROL

This paper compares the incentive structures for changes in food safety legislation and in private sector business strategies in the UK, Canada and Australia. The experiences of these countries with respect to food safety scares is quite different, leading to different incentives for change and alternative legislative and private sector responses. In the UK, incentives were primarily related to crisis management and the restoration of consumer confidence following a number of high profile food safety scares. In Canada and Australia, the policy focus has been on risk management and the prevention of trade-threatening food safety issues. Private sector responses to food safety have included the growth of vertical alliances in the UK and Australian beef industries. These are less evident in Canada. The three-country comparison presented in this paper highlights the importance of incentives for change in determining the respective roles of public policy and private sector responses to food safety issues.

The Moral Economy of Grades and Standards

Article

Jul 2000
J RURAL STUD

Lawrence Busch

Although they are ubiquitous, grades and standards are usually considered to be merely convenient technologies for organizing and regulating markets so as to reduce transaction costs. In contrast, in this paper it is argued that grades and standards are part of the moral economy of the modern world. Grades and standards both set norms for behavior and standardize (create uniformity). Grades and standards standardize (1) things, (2) workers, (3) markets, (4) capitalists, (5) standards themselves, (6) those who make the standards, (7) consumers, and (8) the environment. Grades and standards may be established by (1) national and international governmental standards bodies, (2) industry and independent standards setting bodies, (3) industry leaders, (4) specialized standards setting bodies, or (5) purchasing agents. Who participates in setting the standards, the processes by which standards are set and what the consequences of setting the standards are have considerable impact on fundamental questions about who we are and how we shall live.

Barriers to Agricultural Exports from Developing Countries: The Role of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Requirements

Article

Jan 2001
WORLD DEV

This paper explores the impact of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures in developed countries on developing country exports of agricultural and food products. It identifies the problems that developing countries face in meeting SPS requirements and how these relate to the nature of SPS measures and the compliance resources available to government and the supply chain. The paper examines the impact of the WTO's SPS Agreement on the extent to which SPS measures impede exports from developing countries. It identifies the problems that limit the participation of developing countries in the SPS Agreement and their concerns about the way in which it currently operates.

Private Voluntary Standards in the Food System: The Perspective of Major Food Retailers in OECD Countries

Article

Feb 2006
FOOD POLICY

Linda Fulponi

The paper examines the main economic and institutional incentives which have driven major OECD food retailers in their use of private voluntary standards and discusses their growing role in shaping the agri-food system. It is based on interviews with quality and safety directors of major OECD retailers and a brief survey of retailers’ actual buyer practices. Though not all retailers are included, these firms account for over 70% of retail food sales in OECD countries. We find that the growing voice of civil society, changing legal and institutional frameworks, increased market concentration and buying power as well as their integration with financial markets has provided the setting for development of private standards. While food safety and quality standards are seen as key to maintaining and improving reputation as well as against legal liabilities, additional standards such as labour, environmental and animal welfare are also gaining ground as strategies for customer loyalty and market shares. The grass-roots retailer move in the harmonization of food safety standards is seen as an initial step towards a global approach to managing the food system, with harmonization of other standards likely in the future. Given their buyer power, these developments can be viewed as a way of governing the food system and will be important for both OECD and non-OECD food and agricultural sector evolution in the coming years.

Private Agri-Food Standards: Implications for Food Policy and the Agri-Food System

Article

Jun 2005
FOOD POLICY

This paper provides a brief introduction to the evolution and nature of private food safety and quality standards, highlighting the resultant impacts on the structure and modus operandi of supply chains for agricultural and food products and the challenges posed for processes of agricultural development. It serves as an introduction to a series of papers that provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge regarding private food safety and quality standards in both an industrialised and developing country context. In so doing, it aims to provide a catalyst for further research on this rapidly evolving field of inquiry.

Firm Strategic Response to Food Safety and Nutrition Regulation

Article

Jan 1991

Julie A. Caswell

Increased scientific evidence and consumer awareness of the health effects of diet have created an expanded market for food products that fit specific safety and nutrition profiles. Firm response to this demand is made in the context of extensive ex ante (administrative agency) and ex post (liability) government regulation of food products. Firms simultaneously seek to modify the structure of government regulation to their strategic advantage.

How Nations Choose Product Standards and Standards Change Nations

Article

Mar 1998
CONTEMP SOCIOL

Samuel. Krislov

The electronic version of this book has been prepared by scanning TIFF 600 dpi bitonal images of the pages of the text. Original source: How nations choose product standards and standards change nations / Samuel Krislov.; Krislov, Samuel.; viii, 264 p. ; 24 cm.; Pittsburgh :; This electronic text file was created by Optical Character Recognition (OCR). No corrections have been made to the OCR-ed text and no editing has been done to the content of the original document. Encoding has been done through an automated process using the recommendations for Level 2 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines. Digital page images are linked to the text file.

Premiums for High Quality Products As Returns to Reputations

Article

Feb 1983

Carl Shapiro

This paper derives an equilibrium price-quality schedule for markets in which buyers cannot observe product quality prior to purchase. In such markets there is an incentive for sellers to reduce quality and take short-run gains before buyers catch on. In order to forestall such quality cutting, the price-quality schedule involves high quality items selling at a premium above their cost. This premium also serves the function of compensating sellers for their investment in reputation. The effects of improved consumer information and of a minimum quality standard on the equilibrium price-quality schedule are studied. In general, optimal quality standards exclude from the market items some consumers would like to buy.

Governance and Trade in Fresh Vegetables: The Impact of UK Supermarkets on the African Horticulture Industry

Article

Feb 2000
J DEV STUD

Production of fresh vegetables for export has grown rapidly in a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa over the last decade. This trade brings producers and exporters based in Africa together with importers and retailers in Europe. Large retailers in Europe play a decisive role in structuring the production and processing of fresh vegetables exported from Africa. The requirements they specify for cost, quality, delivery, product variety, innovation, food safety and quality systems help top determine what types of producers and processors are able to gain access to the fresh vegetables chain and the activities they must carry out. The control over the fresh vegetables trade exercised by UK supermarkets has clear consequences for inclusion and exclusion of producers and exporters of differing types, and for the long-term prospects for the fresh vegetables industry in the two major exporting countries studied, Kenya and Zimbabwe.

Minimum Quality Standards, Fixed Costs, and Competition

Article

Feb 1991
RAND J ECON

Uri Ronnen

I investigate the consequences of imposing a minimum quality standard on an industry in which firms face quality-dependent fixes costs and compete in quality and price. Even though the high-quality sellers would satisfy the standard in the absence of regulation, imposing a standard leads these sellers to raise qualities. They do so in an effort to alleviate the price competition, which intensifies as a result of the low-quality sellers' having raised their qualities to meet the imposed standard. However, by its very nature, a minimum quality standard limits the range in which producers can differentiate qualities. Hence, in the end, price competition intensifies, and prices -- "corrected for quality change" -- fall. Due to the better qualities and lower hedonic prices, and compared to the unregulated equilibrium, all consumers are better off, more consumers participate in the market, and all participating consumers -- including those who would consume qualities in excess of the standard in the absence of regulation -- select higher qualities. When the consumption of high-quality products generates positive externalities -- as in the case of safety products -- these results favor minimum quality standards. I also show that even in the absence of externalities an appropriately chosen standard improves social welfare.

Private sector management of food safety: Public regulation and the role of private controls

Article

Feb 2001

Private sector responses to the challenge of managing food safety are explored. This paper clarifies the objectives of this special issue, introducing the key issues in each of the following articles. The degree and manner of regulatory compliance, an important element of any strategic food safety management decision, are discussed. Separate of the response to regulations, the incentives of firms to implement advanced management system are documented. The paper pays particular attention to firm efforts to minimize the potential for product recalls.

Kenyan Exports of Nile Perch: Impact of Food Safety Standards on an Export-Oriented Supply Chain

Article

Jul 2004

Over the past decade, exports of fish and fishery products from developing countries have increased rapidly. However, one of the major challenges facing developing countries in seeking to maintain and expand their share of global markets is stricter food safety requirements in industrialized countries. Kenyan exports of Nile perch to the European Union provide a notable example of efforts to comply with such requirements, overlaid with the necessity to overcome restrictions on trade relating to immediate food safety concerns. Although food safety requirements were evolving in their major markets, most notably the European Union, most Kenyan exporters had made little attempts to upgrade their hygiene standards. Likewise, the legislative framework of food safety controls and facilities at landing sites remained largely unchanged. Both exporters and the Kenyan government were forced to take action when a series of restrictions were applied to exports by the European Union over the period 1997 to 2000. Processors responded by upgrading their hygiene controls, although a number of facilities closed, reflecting significant costs of compliance within the context of excess capacity in the sector. Remaining facilities upgraded their hygiene controls and made efforts to diversify their export base away from the European. Legislation and control mechanisms were also enhanced. Hygiene facilities at landing beaches were improved, but remain the major area of weakness. The Kenyan case illustrates the significant impact that stricter food safety requirements can have on export-oriented supply chains. It also demonstrates how such requirements can exacerbate existing pressures for restructuring and reform, while prevailing supply and capacity issues constrain the manner in which the supply chain is able to respond. In Kenya most of the concerted effort to comply with these requirementswas stimulated by the sudden loss of market access in very much a crisis management mode of operation, illustrating the importance of responding to emerging food safety requirements in a proactive and effective manner.

Emerging trends in the new food economy: consumers, firms and science

Article

Feb 2003

Jean. Kinsey

Seven trends that emerge in the new global economy will be identified followed by a discussion of how they evolved and what they imply for public policy and for various types of firms and consumers. Some have called it the Ã‚Â“brave new worldÃ‚Â” of food production and consumption. Some dislike what they see, others fear it, and many embrace it. The new food economy involves many non-food firms that provide ancillary services and products. They go way beyond the familiar farm input suppliers to consulting firms for software and data analysis, to electronic system designers, to engineers of food and packaging, to biological and physical scientists who redesign the food itself. Together, they make the food system work for consumers and for those firms that are receptive to new technology and new ways of doing business.

Quality Leadership When Regulatory Standards Are Forthcoming

Article

Feb 2000
J IND ECON

In many markets, governments set minimum quality standards while some sellers compete on the basis of quality by exceeding them. Such quality leadership strategies often win public acclaim, especially when they involve environmental attributes. Using a duopoly model of vertical product differentiation, we show that if the high-quality firm can commit to a quality level before regulations are promulgated, it induces the regulator to weaken standards, and welfare falls. Our results raise doubts about the social benefits of corporate self-regulation, and highlight the dangers of lengthy delays between legislative mandates for new regulations and their implementation. Copyright 2000 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Standards and Trade Performance: The UK Experience

Article

Sep 1996

This paper analyzes the effects of standards on U.K. trade performance. The results suggest that U.K. strength in standards improves the U.K. trade balance but can also act to make the U.K. market more open. The results also contradict two common views of the effects of standards: first, that standards activity in one country is canceled out by competing standards activity in another and, second, that international standards are the only ones that give trade advantage while 'idiosyncratic' national standards are largely irrelevant. The findings indicate that standards promote intraindustry trade and that 'idiosyncratic' standards can promote exports. Copyright 1996 by Royal Economic Society.

Product Standards and International Trade: Harmonization through Private Coalitions?

Article

Feb 2001
KYKLOS

Alessandra Casella

Free Trade and Evolving Standards

Article

Jan 1995

Alessandra Casella

This paper examines the structure and direction of developing Asia’s trade over the past two decades. The impacts on developing Asia of the economic slowdown in 2009–2010 in high-income countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which includes the European Union (EU), Japan, and United States (US) are projected through a computable general equilibrium model (CGE) of world trade and production. In addition, the impacts of fiscal stimulus and the rise of protectionist sentiments within developing Asia are examined. The expansion of intraregional trade in Asia reflects the role of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as an assembly point and its reliance on demand from outside the region, the EU and the US in particular. The trade channel is crucial in transmitting economic distress from the OECD countries to developing Asia. The projection shows that developing Asia will continue to suffer from demand decline in OECD countries, with the PRC and India being the most impacted. Though Southeast Asia faces reduced exports to the OECD countries, its exports are reduced significantly to other Asian exporters, demonstrating the indirect trade linkages that now exist in the global economy. Fiscal stimulus from the largest economies (including PRC, EU, Japan, and US) could help boost trade and gross domestic product growth in developing Asia but it is not projected to offset entirely the negative impact from the global economic downturn. Protectionism has a negative impact on the countries and regions that take that course. Southeast Asia would be the most impacted by protectionism. If Southeast Asian countries were to raise their applied tariffs to the maximum most-favored nation bound rates under the World Trade Organization, the impact would be negative on real gross domestic product. Heavy manufactures followed by light manufactures, electronics, and textiles are most impacted.

Produce, Food Safety, and International Trade: Response to US Food-borne

Jan 2003

L Calvin

CALVIN, L. (2003) Produce, Food Safety, and International Trade: Response to US Food-borne

Consumer Preferences, Experience and Credence Issues and Their Strategic Implications for French and US Fresh Produce Sectors. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Agribusiness Management Association

Jan 2000

J-M Codron
J A Sterns
Reardon T

CODRON, J-M., STERNS, J.A. AND REARDON T. (2000) Consumer Preferences, Experience and Credence Issues and Their Strategic Implications for French and US Fresh Produce Sectors. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Agribusiness Management Association, Chicago. DOBSON, P.W. (2003). Buyer Power in Food Retailing: The European Experience. Paper presented at the conference Changing Dimensions of the Food Economy: Exploring the Policy Issues,. The Hague, Netherlands.

The Governance of Value Chains

Jan 2003
REV INT POLIT ECON
78-104

G Gereffi
J Humphrey
T Sturgeon

GEREFFI, G., HUMPHREY, J. AND STURGEON, T. (2003). The Governance of Value Chains. Review of the International Political Economy, 12 (1): 78-104.

Jan 1993
152-162

S J Henson
W B Traill

HENSON, S.J. AND TRAILL, W.B. (1993) Economics of Food Safety. Food Policy, 18 (2): 152-162

Re-Engineering Marketing Policies in Food and Agriculture: Issues and Alternatives for Grain Trading Policies

Jan 1994

E Jones
L D Hill
T E Josling
D Roberts
D Orden

JONES, E. AND HILL, L.D. (1994) Re-Engineering Marketing Policies in Food and Agriculture: Issues and Alternatives for Grain Trading Policies. In: Padberg, D.I. (ed.) Re-Engineering Marketing Policies for Food and Agriculture. Food and Agricultural Marketing Consortium, JOSLING, T.E., ROBERTS, D. AND ORDEN, D. (2004) Food Regulation and Trade: Toward a Safe and Open Global Food System. Institute for International Economics, Washington DC.

Jan 1985

M L Katz
C Shapiro

KATZ, M.L. AND SHAPIRO, C. (1985) Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility.

ed) Soft Law in Governance and Regulation

Jan 2004

U Morth

MORTH, U. (2004) Introduction. In: Morth, U. (ed) Soft Law in Governance and Regulation.

Local enterprises in the Global economy: Issues of Governance and Upgrading

Jan 1995

K Nadvi
F Waltring

NADVI, K. AND WALTRING, F. (2003) Making Sense of Global Standards. In: Schmitz, H. (ed.) Local enterprises in the Global economy: Issues of Governance and Upgrading. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. NRC (1995) Standards, Conformity Assessment and Trade. National Research Council, Washington DC.

The Impact of Regulations on Agro-Food Trade: the Technical barriers to Trade (TBT) and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Agreements

Jan 2003

Oecd

OECD (2003) The Impact of Regulations on Agro-Food Trade: the Technical barriers to Trade (TBT) and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Agreements. OECD, Paris.

Private Standards and the Shaping of the Agri-Food System

Jan 1990

Oecd

OECD (2004) Private Standards and the Shaping of the Agri-Food System. OECD, Paris. PORTER, M. (1990) The Competitive Advantage of Nations. MacMillan, London.

The Rapid Rise of Supermarkets in Latin America: Challenges and Opportunities for Development

Jan 2002
DEV POLICY REV
371-388

T Reardon
J A Berdegeue

REARDON, T. AND BERDEGEUE, J.A. (2002) The Rapid Rise of Supermarkets in Latin America: Challenges and Opportunities for Development. Development Policy Review, 20 (4): 371-388.

The Rise of Private Food safety and quality Standards: Illustrations from Brazil. Paper presented at annual meeting of International Food and Agribusiness Management Association

Jan 2001

T Reardon
E M M Q Farina

REARDON, T. AND FARINA, E.M.M.Q. (2001) The Rise of Private Food safety and quality Standards: Illustrations from Brazil. Paper presented at annual meeting of International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, Sydney.

The Role of Public and Private Standards in Regulating International Food Markets

Abstract

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