IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/gjagec/96733.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Bioterrorism Act of the USA and international food trade: evaluating WTO conformity and effects on bilateral imports

Author

Listed:
  • Wieck, Christine
  • Rudloff, Bettina

Abstract

The September 11th event focused the world’s attention on the threat of bioterrorism on the food chain. As a consequence, the USA implemented the Bioterrorism Act (BTA) containing new import requirements that can be classified as non-tariff barriers (NTBs). This paper analyses these NTBs by performing an assessment of WTO conformity and trade impact: hereby general problems in the analysis of bioterrorist risks are explored as for this new and unknown threat explicit WTO rules are still missing. Additionally, in exploring the BTA relevant process standard rules laid out by the WTO, the analysis indicates the extensive flexibility provided in this framework. This leads to larger scope for national polices on process standards compared to product standards (e.g. residua levels). The empirical trade flow analysis illustrates differences in the compliance costs between countries. This differentiation can be caused by learning costs that may differ among countries. The analysis highlights that perishable products and countries with small import quantities are mostly affected.

Suggested Citation

  • Wieck, Christine & Rudloff, Bettina, 2007. "The Bioterrorism Act of the USA and international food trade: evaluating WTO conformity and effects on bilateral imports," German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics, vol. 56(03), pages 1-14.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:gjagec:96733
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.96733
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/96733/files/2_Wieck.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.96733?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Buzby, Jean C. & Roberts, Tanya & Lin, Chung-Tung Jordan & MacDonald, James M., 1996. "Bacterial Foodborne Disease: Medical Costs and Productivity Losses," Agricultural Economic Reports 33991, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    2. Hood, Christopher & Rothstein, Henry & Baldwin, Robert, 2004. "The Government of Risk: Understanding Risk Regulation Regimes," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199270019.
    3. Jaffee, Steven & Henson, Spencer, 2004. "Standards and agro-food exports from developing countries: rebalancing the debate," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3348, The World Bank.
    4. Unknown, 2003. "International Trade And Food Safety: Economic Theory And Case Studies," Agricultural Economic Reports 33941, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    5. Kerr, William A., 2004. "Homeland Security and the Rules of International Trade," Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade, vol. 5(1), pages 1-10.
    6. Dawn D. Thilmany & Christopher B. Barrett, 1997. "Regulatory Barriers in an Integrating World Food Market," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 19(1), pages 91-107.
    7. Moffitt L. Joe & Stranlund John K. & Field Barry C., 2005. "Inspections to Avert Terrorism: Robustness Under Severe Uncertainty," Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, De Gruyter, vol. 2(3), pages 1-19, September.
    8. Timothy E. Josling & Donna Roberts & David Orden, 2004. "Food Regulation and Trade: Toward a Safe and Open Global System," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number 347, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wieck, Christine & Rudloff, Bettina, 2007. "The Bioterrorism Act of the USA and international food trade: evaluating WTO conformity and effects on bilateral imports," Journal of International Agricultural Trade and Development, Journal of International Agricultural Trade and Development, vol. 56(3).
    2. -, 2010. "Experiencias de articulación entre los sectores público y privado para la implementación de tratados de libre comercio," Documentos de Proyectos 3849, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    3. Richard Newfarmer, 2006. "Trade, Doha, and Development : A Window into the Issues," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7135.
    4. Buzby, Jean C. & Mitchell, Lorraine, 2006. "Private, National, and International Food-Safety Standards," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 37(1), pages 1-6, March.
    5. Spencer Henson & Steven Jaffee, 2008. "Understanding Developing Country Strategic Responses to the Enhancement of Food Safety Standards," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 548-568, April.
    6. Bo Xiong & John Beghin, 2017. "Disentangling Demand-Enhancing And Trade-Cost Effects Of Maximum Residue Regulations," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: John Christopher Beghin (ed.), Nontariff Measures and International Trade, chapter 6, pages 105-108, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Farris, Jarrad & Morgan, Stephen & Beckman, Jayson, 2022. "Evaluating the Effects of Non-Tariff Measures on Poultry Trade," 2022: Transforming Global Value Chains, December 11-13, Clearwater Beach, FL 339426, International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium.
    8. Ronen, Eyal, 2017. "The Trade-Enhancing Effect Of Non-Tariff Measures On Virgin Olive Oil," International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics (IJFAEC), Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Department of Economics and Finance, vol. 5(3), July.
    9. Qizhong Yang & Keiichiro Honda & Tsunehiro Otsuki, 2019. "Structural demand estimation of the response to food safety regulations in the Japanese poultry market," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 9(3), pages 367-385, September.
    10. Anne-Célia Disdier & Lionel Fontagné & Mondher Mimouni, 2008. "The Impact of Regulations on Agricultural Trade: Evidence from the SPS and TBT Agreements," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 90(2), pages 336-350.
    11. Neeliah, Harris & Neeliah, Shalini Amnee, 2014. "Changing Agro-food Export Composition and SPS Compliance: Lessons for Mauritius," Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade, vol. 15(1), pages 1-23.
    12. Unknown, 2006. "Articles from Volume 2, Issue 1, 2006, Journal of International Agricultural Trade and Development," Journal of International Agricultural Trade and Development, Journal of International Agricultural Trade and Development, vol. 2(1).
    13. Sven M. Anders & Julie A. Caswell, 2007. "Standards as Barriers Versus Standards as Catalysts: Assessing the Impact of HACCP Implementation on U.S. Seafood Imports," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 91(2), pages 310-321.
    14. Kareem, Olayinka Idowu, 2022. "Fruit safety regulations in the transatlantic region: How are Africa’s exports faring with the regulations?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 886-902.
    15. Unnevehr, Laurian J., 2006. "Food Safety as a Global Public Good: Is There Underinvestment?," 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia 25733, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Bo Xiong & John Beghin, 2017. "Disentangling Demand-Enhancing And Trade-Cost Effects Of Maximum Residue Regulations," World Scientific Book Chapters,in: Nontariff Measures and International Trade, chapter 6, pages 105-108 World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    17. Hänke, Hendrik & Barkmann, Jan & Blum, Lloyd & Franke, Yvonne & Martin, Dominic A. & Niens, Jasnna & Osen, Kristina & Uruena, Viviana & Witherspoon, S. Annette & Wurz, Annemarie, 2018. "Socio-economic, land use and value chain perspectives on vanilla farming in the SAVA Region (north-eastern Madagascar): The Diversity Turn Baseline Study (DTBS)," DARE Discussion Papers 1806, Georg-August University of Göttingen, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development (DARE).
    18. Alexandra Revez & Jose A Cortes-Vazquez & Stephen Flood, 2017. "Risky policies: Local contestation of mainstream flood risk management approaches in Ireland," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(11), pages 2497-2516, November.
    19. Benjamin van Rooij & Rachel E. Stern & Kathinka Fürst, 2016. "The authoritarian logic of regulatory pluralism: Understanding China's new environmental actors," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(1), pages 3-13, March.
    20. Mirko Noordegraaf & Janet Newman, 2011. "Managing in Disorderly Times," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 513-538, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    International Relations/Trade;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:gjagec:96733. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iahubde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.