Global Trade and Food Safety : Winners and Losers in a Fragmented System
Food safety standards, and the tradeoff between these standards, and agricultural export growth, are at the forefront of the trade policy debate. How food safety is addressed in the world trade system, is critical for developing countries that cont...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/10/1615017/global-trade-food-safety-winners-losers-fragmented-system http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19529 |
| Summary: | Food safety standards, and the tradeoff
between these standards, and agricultural export growth, are
at the forefront of the trade policy debate. How food safety
is addressed in the world trade system, is critical for
developing countries that continue to rely on agricultural
exports. In a fragmented system of conflicting national food
safety standards, and no globally accepted standards, export
prospects for the least developed countries, can be severely
limited. The authors examine the impact that adopting
international food safety standards, and harmonizing
standards would have on global food trade patterns. They
estimate the effect of aflatoxin standards in fifteen
importing countries (including four developing countries) on
exports from thirty one countries (twenty one of them
developing). Aflatoxin is a natural substance that can
contaminate certain nuts, and grains when storage, and
drying facilities are inadequate. The analysis shows that
adopting a worldwide standard for aflatoxin B1 (potentially
the most toxic of aflatoxins) based on current international
guidelines, would increase nut, and cereal trade among the
countries studied, by $ 6.1 billion, compared with 1998
levels. This harmonization of standards would increase world
exports by $ 38.8 billion. |
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