IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rripxx/v23y2016i5p872-898.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ratcheting up protective regulations in the shadow of the WTO: NGO strategy and food safety standard-setting in India

Author

Listed:
  • Amy A. Quark

Abstract

How does the World Trade Organization (WTO) shape contests among civil society organizations, transnational firms, and states over domestic regulations that protect human health, such as food safety standards? The WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS Agreement) aims to limit the use of non-tariff barriers like regulatory standards as protectionist measures. Yet, few attempts have been made to explore how these rules shape national policy-making processes, and particularly the ability of civil society organizations to ratchet up protective regulations. Through a study of standard-setting for pesticide residues in soft drinks in India, I argue that WTO rules are at once legal obligations backed by the coercive threat of economic sanctions and discursive standards for what constitutes ‘appropriate regulatory practice.’ As discursive standards, the rules shape the rationalities and strategies of diverse actors in domestic regulatory contests. These standards of appropriate regulatory practice are used instrumentally by transnational firms to undermine the influence of civil society in policy-making but can also offer opportunities for civil society organizations to contest and even enlarge the boundaries of appropriate regulatory practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Amy A. Quark, 2016. "Ratcheting up protective regulations in the shadow of the WTO: NGO strategy and food safety standard-setting in India," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5), pages 872-898, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rripxx:v:23:y:2016:i:5:p:872-898
    DOI: 10.1080/09692290.2016.1242509
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09692290.2016.1242509
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09692290.2016.1242509?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Freidberg, Susanne, 2004. "French Beans and Food Scares: Culture and Commerce in an Anxious Age," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195169614.
    2. Eagleton-Pierce, Matthew, 2012. "Symbolic Power in the World Trade Organization," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199662647.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Valeria Sodano & Maria Teresa Gorgitano, 2022. "Framing Political Issues in Food System Transformative Changes," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-19, October.

    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. Amy A. Quark & Rachel Lienesch, 2017. "Scientific boundary work and food regime transitions: the double movement and the science of food safety regulation," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(3), pages 645-661, September.
    2. Sarah Bowen & Tad Mutersbaugh, 2014. "Local or localized? Exploring the contributions of Franco-Mediterranean agrifood theory to alternative food research," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 201-213, June.
    3. Nicholas Sitko, 2008. "Maize, food insecurity, and the field of performance in southern Zambia," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(1), pages 3-11, January.
    4. Henry Wai-chung Yeung & Neil M. Coe, 2015. "Toward a Dynamic Theory of Global Production Networks," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 91(1), pages 29-58, January.
    5. Elena Baglioni, 2018. "Labour control and the labour question in global production networks: exploitation and disciplining in Senegalese export horticulture," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 111-137.
    6. Eric R. Sarmiento, 2017. "Synergies in alternative food network research: embodiment, diverse economies, and more-than-human food geographies," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(2), pages 485-497, June.
    7. Stefan Ouma, 2012. "Creating and Maintaining Global Connections: Agro-business and the Precarious Making of Fresh-cut Markets," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(3), pages 322-334, March.
    8. Zdzislaw W. Puslecki, 2018. "The Increasing Importance of Bilateral Agreements in the Foreign Trade Policy," Journal of Management and Strategy, Journal of Management and Strategy, Sciedu Press, vol. 9(1), pages 19-30, February.
    9. Lieba Faier, 2011. "Fungi, Trees, People, Nematodes, Beetles, and Weather: Ecologies of Vulnerability and Ecologies of Negotiation in Matsutake Commodity Exchange," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(5), pages 1079-1097, May.
    10. Rezvani, L., 2020. "Plants and their peasants: a more-than-human approach to plant breeding and seed politics in Brittany, France," ISS Working Papers - General Series 124280, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    11. Zdzisław W. Puślecki, 2016. "Bilateral trade agreements and the rise of global supply chains," Journal of Economic and Financial Studies (JEFS), LAR Center Press, vol. 4(5), pages 17-23, October.
    12. Diana Mincyte, 2012. "How milk does the world good: vernacular sustainability and alternative food systems in post-socialist Europe," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 29(1), pages 41-52, March.
    13. Julius Okello & Ruth Okello, 2010. "Do EU pesticide standards promote environmentally-friendly production of fresh export vegetables in developing countries? The evidence from Kenyan green bean industry," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 341-355, June.
    14. Maria Paula Escobar & David Demeritt, 2017. "Paperwork and the decoupling of audit and animal welfare: The challenges of materiality for better regulation," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(1), pages 169-190, February.
    15. Ponte, Stefano, 2008. "Greener than Thou: The Political Economy of Fish Ecolabeling and Its Local Manifestations in South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 159-175, January.
    16. Stefano Ponte, 2007. "Bans, tests, and alchemy: Food safety regulation and the Uganda fish export industry," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 24(2), pages 179-193, June.
    17. Julie Guthman, 2007. "Commentary on teaching food: Why I am fed up with Michael Pollan et al," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 24(2), pages 261-264, June.
    18. Martha McMahon, 2013. "What Food is to be Kept Safe and for Whom? Food-Safety Governance in an Unsafe Food System," Laws, MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-27, October.
    19. Spencer Henson & John Humphrey, 2010. "Understanding the Complexities of Private Standards in Global Agri-Food Chains as They Impact Developing Countries," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(9), pages 1628-1646.
    20. Galt, Ryan E., 2009. "Overlap of US FDA residue tests and pesticides used on imported vegetables: Empirical findings and policy recommendations," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 468-476, October.

    More about this item

    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:taf:rripxx:v:23:y:2016:i:5:p:872-898. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rrip20 .

    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.