Standards, trade and protection: the case of GMOs

A global economy-wide model (GTAP) is used to go beyond estimating how GM crop variety adoption affects adopting and non-adopting economies, with or without policy responses to this technology, by indicating effects also on real incomes of farmers. The results suggest the EU moratorium on imports of GM food helps EU farmers even though it requires them to forego the productivity boost they could receive from the new biotechnology. An estimate of the cost of that EU moratorium to developing countries and the world also is provided.