Food standards and exports: evidence for China

Using a new database on Chinese food standards, this paper estimates the impact of voluntary and mandatory standards on its agricultural and food exports. The dataset covers seven Chinese products from 1992 to 2008. The findings here indicate that standards have a positive effect on China’s export performance. Standards Signal to customers that products meet certain quality measures and promote information exchange. The benefits of increased exports outweigh compliance costs. Our results also show that theses positive effects are larger when the standards are consistent with international norms.

China Information

Economic sociology views markets as organizations characterized by power relations. In this framework, competition is not only for price or quality, but also for market structures, including norms and standards. Food standards, therefore, are not only public goods or tools to protect domestic markets, but they also aim to redesign the rules of the market and provide a competitive advantage to firms and national industries: they are part of the politicization of science. This article argues that China is participating in this form of competition. Since its WTO membership, it has gradually learnt the rules of globalization and has implemented many global standards to benefit from international trade. In recent years, however, it has assumed a more proactive role in reframing international standards of agro-food markets in general and food safety in particular, despite existing problems in its domestic food markets. Three case studies – milk imports; the diplomatic and trade competitio...

In this paper, we examine the trade impact of private standards on exports of manufactured food products. Our database covers information from about 12,000 food manufacturing companies from 88 countries – including 53 developing countries -- that are certified with retailer-based International Featured Standard (IFS). We use a dynamic gravity model for the period 2008 to 2013 and find that IFS certifications are significantly positively correlated with exports suggesting that private standards certifications push exports of manufactured food products. Controlling for geographical distance and common language and other trade related variables, we find that standards certifications have the largest impact for European countries, followed by American and Asian countries. In contrast, the coefficient estimate for African countries is insignificant. Exports from African countries seem not to benefit from the increased use of private standards which puts into question the poverty reducing effect of private standards for low-income countries.

Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, 2016

We study the impact of public quality standards on industry structure in a context of international trade. We consider vertical differentiation in an international trade model based on monopolistic competition in which firms differ in terms of their productivity and must incur two fixed export costs when exporting to any given destination: a generic one (i.e., setting up a distribution system) and a destination-specific one to meet the quality standard prevailing in the importing country. Variable costs are also increasing in quality. The absolute mass of firms in any given country is decreasing in the domestic standard, but the relative mass (market share) of foreign firms is increasing in the domestic standard. Increasing public quality standards benefit highly productive foreign firms which gain from the quality-induced exit of less productive domestic and foreign firms. The increase in industry productivity following stricter public standards does not result from induced innovation as in the Porter hypothesis but from the exit of less productive firms.

2017

Given the difficulties of (i) measuring the incidence and stringency of standards across countries accurately and (ii) quantifying the impact of these standards on trade, UNIDO et al. suggest an alternative approach. They propose measuring countries' capacity to comply with technical regulations and standards in international markets directly. The research develops three measures of a country's standards compliance capacity: i) import rejection data (data on official rejections of developing country agrifood exports by key import markets); ii) a corporate buyers' compliance confidence survey (data on corporate buyers' perceptions of the compliance capacity of developing country producers) and iii) a Trade Standards Compliance Capacity Index (aggregated data on the quality and conformity assessment infrastructure in developing countries). Together, these measures offer "a relatively comprehensive and consistent picture of the performance of particular developing countries in complying with technical regulations and standards in [various] international agrifood markets" (p. 5). 3. Secondary research evidence: multi-sector studies Developed and developing countries

Food Policy, 2013

This paper shows that private product standards in EU food and agriculture markets can have significant trade effects. In particular for developing countries and for goods that are perishable or only lightly processed, EU standards can often be trade-inhibiting. However, internationally harmonized EU standardsthose that are equivalent to ISO norms-have much weaker trade effects, and in some cases are even trade-promoting. At a policy level, our results highlight the importance of dealing with the trade effects of private standards in major markets, not just mandatory public standards. JEL Codes: F13; O24; Q17.

103Rd Seminar April 23 25 2007 Barcelona Spain, 2007

Developing country producers face several constraints related to food safety standards imposed by developed countries. The purpose of this study is to identify factors affecting export flows with respect to food safety standards; and to measure the effects of food safety standards on exports. This study incorporates a food safety variable in a gravity model. The analysis uses aggregate data for bilateral exports of processed food products, and data for factors affecting bilateral export flows for 17 years on 16 OECD and Asia-Pacific countries. The results show that food product exports are negatively affected by aflatoxin standards. A one percent increase in food safety standards decrease exports by approximately one percent. This means that large changes in food standards (which are common these days) will have salutary, deleterious impacts on food exports by developing countries.

Journal of Integrative Agriculture

Established within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM) reviews periodically the trade policies of all WTO Members. The review includes many aspects of food safety regulation. China's trade policy is reviewed every two years. This paper analyses in detail the reviews of China's trade policy in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014. It focuses in particular on food safety laws and types of standards, alignment of domestic standards with international standards, the role of different domestic institutions, transparency and notification of food safety measures under the WTO agreements on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement), import and export, and geographical indications (GIs). It concludes that the WTO TPRM can contribute, within its mandate, to reform of Chinese food safety laws and improvement of food safety in China. It notes that China has already undertaken substantial reforms of its system for regulating food safety. It recommends that China should continue to participate actively in the TPRM, follow its own path with regard to alignment and learn selectively from other WTO Members.

… Congress, August 26-29 …, 2008

Privately initiated food quality standards are currently important elements in the marketing of food and agricultural products. At the same time, they stand in the centre of a discussion about potential negative effects on small farmers and farmers in developing countries. This study aims at analysing the adoption of two private food standards, BRC Technical Food Standard and GlobalGAP, at an aggregated crosscountry level. The results of the econometric analysis reveal some (potential) barriers for developing countries to access this type of organisational innovation. Certificates seem to be issued more probably in larger and wealthier countries, countries with a better institutional quality, better infrastructural conditions and in former UK colonies.