A Race to the Top? A Case Study of Food Safety Standards and African Exports

Otsuki, Tsunehiro ; Wilson, John S. ; Sewadeh, Mirvat

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS;    AGRICULTURAL TRADE;    AGRICULTURE;    BEEF;    BILATERAL TRADE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2563
RP-ID  :  WPS2563

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Growing concern over health risksassociated with food products is at the forefront of tradepolicy debate. At the heart of this debate is the"precautionary principle," which holds thatprecautions should be taken against health, safety, andenvironmental risks even when science has not establisheddirect cause-and-effect relationships--as with, for example,the EUropean ban on hormone-treated beef. The authorsquantify the impact on food exports from African countriesof new EUropean Union standards for aflatoxins, structurallyrelated toxic compounds that contaminate certain foods andlead to the production of acute liver carcinogens in thehuman body. The authors estimate the impact of changes indiffering levels of such protection based on the EUstandards (and suggested by international standards) for 15EUropean countries and 9 African countries between 1989 and1998. The results suggest that implementation of theEU's new aflatoxin standards will significantly hurtAfrican exports to EUrope of nuts, cereals, and driedfruits, which are highly sensitive to the aflatoxinstandards. The EU standards would reduce health risks byonly about 1.4 deaths per billion a year but would cutAfrican exports by 64 percent, or $670 million, comparedwith their level under international standards.