The impact of food safety standards on processed food exports from developing countries

This paper examines the impact of food safety standards on processed food exports in developing countries. A panel data econometric analysis of processed food exports in developing countries was undertaken. The Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standard (SPS) is incorporated into the model to capture the impact of food safety standards. The empirical model shows that food safety standards imposed by developed countries could impede processed food exports from developing countries. This could emerge because practically, SPS is less transparent than tariffs or quotas. There is an ample room for developed countries to tweak the standards stronger than necessary to achieve optimal levels of social protection, and to twist the related testing and certification procedures to make their competing imports more competitive. In addition, limited supply-side capacity of developing countries, especially in terms of resources, manpower as well as institution, constrains the countries to overcome food safety standards. Because of the potential benefits that could emerge from imposing food safety standards such as a reduction in transaction costs and trade friction, developing countries should view SPS not just as a trade barrier but also as an opportunity to upgrade quality standard and market sophistication. Supply-side capacity in developing countries needed to be improved, especially upgrading agriculture sector. Multilateral efforts are also needed to mobilize additional financial and technical assistance to help redress constraints in developing countries in meeting the required food safety standards imposed by developed countries.     

Product standards and developing country agricultural exports: The case of the European Union

This paper shows that voluntary product standards in EU food and agriculture markets can have significant trade effects. In particular for all countries and for goods that are raw or lightly processed, EU standards can often be trade-inhibiting. However, internationally harmonized EU standards—those that are equivalent to ISO norms—have much weaker trade effects, and in some cases are even trade-promoting. EU standards may have hurt developed countries more than developing countries, but this result is dependent on the sector. At a policy level, the results highlight the importance of dealing with the trade effects of voluntary standards in major markets, not just mandatory public standards.     

欧委会根据欧盟玩具安全新指令发布协调标准

近日,欧洲委员会公布了更新后2009／48／EC玩具安全指令（欧盟玩具安全新指令）下的协调标准列表。列表包括新修订的~EN71—1：2011玩具安全：第一部分：机械和物理性能》;《EN71—2：2011玩具安全：第二部分：可燃性和EN62115：2005／A2：2011电动玩具一安全》。这些欧泔I标准根据欧洲委员会和欧洲1自由贸易协会下达给CEN的命令制订,以满足新指令2009／48／EC的基本安全要求。     

Globalisation of food quality standards: the impact in Greece

Globalisation is the global integration of standardised markets and has significant implications for Greece, a small European country distant from the main centres of world capital. Greece does however occupy a key position in the Balkan peninsula at the Eastern end of the Mediterranean. The paper commences by identifying the interpretation of the concept of globalisation and its effect on food quality standards. It subsequently attempts to sharpen understanding of the concept by considering concrete instances in which it has affected the Greek food industry. The paper concludes by suggesting an analytical framework for Greek institutions, legislators and policymakers addressing issues on standardisation.     

The impact of the European Novel Food Regulation on trade and food innovation based on traditional plant foods from developing countries

The stringent food safety assessment for novel foods required by the European Union’s Novel Food Regulation (NFR) places a high burden of proof on those bringing traditional food products to the EU market not consumed in the EU prior 1997. The regulation has emerged as a non-tariff trade barrier for heritage foods from developing countries that are viewed as “exotic” from the EU perspective. We show how the regulation has discouraged investment in supply chains and market development, and how this negatively affects income generation and rural poverty alleviation in developing countries. Focusing on plant-derived foods, this paper proposes to recognize traditional exotic foods in current EU law as a food category sui generis with food safety evidence requirements being proportionate to the risks they may pose. We argue that development activities promoting export food chains must increasingly accommodate legitimate food safety concerns about neglected food species in project design and seek to generate data to enhance regulatory acceptance in target markets.     

Private food safety and quality standards for fresh produce exporters: The case of Hortico Agrisystems,Zimbabwe

There is evidence that the challenges of complying with stricter food safety and quality standards are acting to exclude small-scale producers from export supply chains for high-value agricultural products. The case of Hortico Agrisystems illustrates the considerable challenges and costs faced by supermarket suppliers in sourcing from a broad base of small-scale producers in the context of evolving food safety and quality standards. While small-scale producers are able to achieve levels of compliance at least equal to those of large-scale producers, multi-tiered and dynamic systems of control are required to maintain control. These need to include measures that facilitate compliance, incentives to reward good performance and penalties to punish non-compliance. In establishing a sustainable supply system in this context, both exporters and small-scale producers face a steep learning curve in adjusting to new requirements, further emphasising the need for supply chains to be responsive to change.     

Private voluntary standards in the food system: The perspective of major food retailers in OECD countries

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.     

Rethinking the global food crisis: The role of trade shocks

Although fundamental factors were clearly responsible for shifting the world to a higher food price equilibrium in the years leading up the 2008 food crisis, there is little doubt that when food prices peaked in June of 2008, they soared well above the new equilibrium price. Numerous arguments have been proposed to explain overshooting, including financial speculation, depreciation of the United States (US) dollar, low interest rates, and reductions in grain stocks. However, observations that international rice prices surged in response to export restrictions by India and Vietnam suggested that trade-related factors could be an important basis for overshooting, especially given the very tangible link between export volumes and export prices. In this paper, we revisit the trade story by closely examining monthly data from Thailand (the largest exporter of rice), and the United States (the largest exporter of wheat and maize and the third largest exporter of soybeans). In all cases except soybeans, we find that large surges in export volumes preceded the price surges. The presence of these large demand surges, together with back-of-the-envelope estimates of their price impacts, suggests that trade events played a much larger and more pervasive role than previously thought.     

马来西亚修改玩具安全标准

马来西亚国内贸易合作和消费保障部（MDTCC）最近发布公告,对E2010年消费者保护法规（玩具安全标准）（修订版）》和《2010年消费者保护法规（安全标准认可证书和合格标志）》的过渡期进行修改。这两项法规的实施将分阶段进行。     

电动玩具出口将遭遇欧盟安全新规

继欧盟新玩具指令（2009／48／EC）EN71—1：2011正式实施之后,欧盟又于近日公布两项电动玩具安全标准,     

Assessing the impact of food policy research: rice trade policies in Viet Nam

The economic impact of marketing and trade policy research in Viet Nam conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is assessed using a novel benefit–cost framework. It measures the economic value of the time saved in hastening the policy responses of the Government of Vietnam. Extensive interviews with partners and stakeholders in the research clearly indicated that the time saving was a legitimate measure of the influence of IFPRI on decision-making. Linking a spatial equilibrium model with income distribution analysis based on national household surveys, allowed IFPRI to satisfy policymakers that relaxing rice export quotas and internal trade restrictions on rice would not adversely impact on regional disparities and food security, and would have beneficial effects on farm prices and poverty. These were major concerns of policymakers prior to the IFPRI research project. The research on these and other policy options gave a degree of confidence to policymakers that relaxing the controls would be in Viet Nam’s national interest. They made these decisions earlier than would have been the case without the IFPRI research. The policy assessment framework is used to measure the economic impact of the policy changes themselves, and in particular, the contribution of IFPRI’s work with Viet Nam on the policies from 1995 to 1997. The relaxation of rice export quotas and internal restrictions on rice trade made by the Government of Viet Nam in 1995–97 are estimated to have had a present (1995) value to Viet Nam using a 5% discount rate of $222 million by 2000, rising to $966 million by 2020. For an incremental research investment of less than US$1 million, a conservative estimate of the benefit to Viet Nam of the IFPRI contribution to the policy changes effected in Viet Nam from the reduction in the policy implementation lag indicates a present value in 1995 terms of US$45 million. This represents a benefit–cost ratio of 56. A more optimistic assessment is that the present value is US$91 million with a benefit–cost ratio of 114. In addition to the welfare gains to Viet Nam, there were sizeable gains to the rest of the world from IFPRI’s contribution. Inclusion of these benefits increases present value and benefit–cost estimates by 34 to 84%. Around 38% of the contribution of IFPRI is estimated to have accrued to the rest of the world, as Viet Nam is now a major player in world rice trade.     

The effect of the digital economy on services exports competitiveness and ternary margins

In the era of the digital economy, improving the level of information and communications technology (ICT) development is an important measure for achieving the high-quality development of the services exports. This study constructs a comprehensive development index for the digital economy based on the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Statistics Database (UCTADstat) to calculate the services exports competitiveness of 75 countries (regions) around the world from 2010 to 2019 and conducts ternary margin decomposition. The study empirically verifies that the digital economy promotes the competitiveness of services exports, not only driving intensive growth of quantity margin and price margin but also enhances the expansion growth of category margin. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the effect of the digital economy on improving low- and middle-income countries' services exports competitiveness and industries with low ICT intensity is more significant than that of high-income countries and high ICT-intensity industries. The impact of the digital economy on the ternary margin of countries’ different income levels and ICT-intensity sample groups exhibits differentiated estimation results. The conclusions of this study provide novel explanations regarding the effects of the digital economy in improving services exports competitiveness and new perspectives and evidence for strategic policymaking.     

What $2.5 billion can buy: The effect of the Broadband Initiatives Program on farm productivity

This paper investigates whether the Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP), implemented as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) had a positive impact on farm productivity, defined as farm sales per farm employment, in the counties that received any BIP funding. The effect of BIP on the growth of farm sales was examined for the 2008–2010, 2008–2011, 2008–2012 and 2008–2013 periods. The selection bias (the probability that a county received BIP funding) was accounted for using the inverse probability weighting regression method (IPW). The findings suggest that BIP funding had a significant but short-term impact on per employment farm sales.     

The multidimensional effect of financial development on trade in Africa: The role of the digital economy

The issue of how financial development affects international trade has gained much attention in the literature, both theoretical and empirical, without investigating the various transmission channels of financial development on international trade. Significantly, how the digital economy modulates the effects of financial development on trade remains unexplored. Our study addresses these research gaps using panel data from 47 African economies spanning 1990 to 2019. Our findings based on the dynamic system GMM approach show that the direct impacts of financial development and the digital economy have been crucial in driving international trade in Africa in the short and long runs. Second, in the short and long runs, the digital economy serves as a vital channel through which financial development has the most significant impact on trade in Africa. Third, the robustness checks by excluding countries endowed with natural resources in Africa provide robust evidence that digital technology and finance matter for trade. Further, the study discloses an important novelty in that the marginal effects on trade increase when financial development in Africa interacts with the digital economy. In light of these findings, we conclude that policy reforms should focus on policies that encourage the development of the digital economy and its use in the financial sector in Africa.     

Assessing the effect of food retail subsidies on the price of food in remote Indigenous communities in Canada

The Canadian government currently subsidizes food retailers in the 25 remote communities in Nunavut through the Nutrition North Canada program. The program expects each dollar of the food subsidy to be fully passed on to the consumer in the form of lower prices. Unfortunately, existing audits and reviews of the program have failed to determine the pass-through rate of the subsidy. Using regression analysis on food price data in each of the 25 communities, subsidy rates, and covariates that control for community characteristics, we overcome the limitations of past research and provide the first-ever estimate of the pass-through rate of Nutrition North in Nunavut. Our results suggest that most, if not all, of the subsidy is passed on to the consumer in lower food prices.     

Integrating the consumer interest in food safety: the role of science and other factors2

Consumers are questioning the ability of the modern food system to provide safe food. This review of the use of monosodium glutamate (MSG), food irradiation, pesticide residues, and genetic engineering highlights the differences in views between public interest organisations, governments and industry associations and some of the reasons behind them. Whereas governments and industry generally support the adoption of new technologies, consumer organisations question the underlying need, which results in less willingness to accept the risks, even when they are small. Given that Uruguay Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) has made the recommendations of the Codex Alimentarius Commission the benchmark for food standards and that countries are allowed to adopt stricter standards only if they are scientifically justified, this review concludes that there is a need to better integrate the consumer interest at the international level.     

Rice market integration and food security in Nepal: The role of cross-border trade with India

Coarse rice market integration between Nepal and India is analyzed applying a threshold autoregressive model. The price response behaviour of traders is found to be consistent with an asymmetric price adjustment mechanism, indicating coarse rice prices in Nepal respond to shocks originating in India. The results show that adjustments to negative price deviations from long-run stable equilibrium are faster than adjustments to the positive ones given a null threshold. Given that trade flows mainly from India to Nepal, Nepali traders would adjust their prices upward to align with the long-run equilibrium value relatively more quickly in the case of negative price deviations, than if the price deviations were positive. Such a high speed of adjustment to negative price deviations could be detrimental to net food buyers’ food security status in the absence of a price stabilization mechanism. However, a price stabilization policy in Nepal, a food deficit and import dependent country, would hardly have any effect on prices unless further effort is made to build up the level of national food reserves for short-term food security interventions. In the current context of structurally low levels of national food reserves, an alternative short-term policy such as foreign aid, in the form of food or income transfers, targeting the most vulnerable households to price increases is necessary through social safety net programmes. In the long-run, an improvement of transportation infrastructure between market hubs (other than the Biratnagar trade basin) in the Terai (Nepal) and India would contribute to the reduction of transaction costs and create incentives for more competition in formal cross-border trade with India. In times of negative shocks such as the high food price crisis in 2008, restrictive food trade policies in India will continue to undermine household food security in Nepal.     

Consumer preferences before and after a food safety scare: An experimental analysis of the 2010 egg recall

In August 2010, more than half a billion eggs were recalled in the U.S. because of a Salmonella outbreak. This study examines the effect of the recall with a unique pair of auction experiments investigating willingness to pay (WTP) for conventional and organic eggs, one conducted shortly before and one right after the recall with the same participants. In addition to the before and after bids, participants bid again after a negative information or balanced information treatment about the event. Accompanying surveys showed consumers had a high level of awareness of the recall but less knowledge of specific details, and viewed information on egg farm conditions as very important in their WTP. While there were no significant before and after differences, WTP for organic eggs significantly increased in the negative information treatment, and balanced information had a positive effect on consumer WTP for conventional eggs.     

International trade and world food security : The role of developed countries since the World Food Conference

No mechanism is in place for the international coordination of grain stocks. World market stability is largely dependent upon the actions of major grain trading countries. These countries have avoided the exportation of their domestic supply variations onto world markets over the past decade, but have been reluctant to allow domestic consumption to respond to world shortages and surpluses. Improvement in the sensitivity of domestic storage and consumption to world conditions could increase their contribution to world food security.     

浅谈基层工会如何发挥群监员在安全生产中的监督作用

文中对如何发挥群监员在安全生产中的监督作用,应从加强组织领导,认识其工作的重要性、加强培训提高群监员的素质、改变作风及建立和完善激励机制等入手。