The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) which was signed into law in January, 2011 represents a major initiative to improve food safety in the US. The legislation mandates the US Food and Drug Administration with developing a regulatory system to implement the Act. As yet, the full effect of...

Trade policy initiatives of developed country governments are in flux. Governments’ need for new trade policy measures has arisen partly because of constraints imposed on the use of export subsidies by the Agreement on Agriculture reached as part of the Uruguay Round of General Agreement on...

Regulations relating to disease management have traditionally been an important component of the overall environment in which international trade in agriculture products occurs. The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement)...

Trade in genetically modified (GM) products remains a major issue in agricultural trade policy. In particular, the European Union has sought to deny market access to GM-products. In the wake of a WTO case brought by Canada and the US, among others, against an import ban imposed on genetically...

The regulatory regime for contamination permits the imposition of import bans with neither a scientific justification nor a risk assessment. No scientific assessment of Triffid flax was done prior to the import ban. The import regime put in place to deal with the contamination of flax with the...

Canada and Mexico are formally challenging US country of origin (COOL) legislation at the World Trade Organization. The industries most affected by COOL are beef and pork. The effect of COOL on North American cross border supply chains is outlined. The areas of international trade law upon which...

Most observers agree that the major areas where gains can be made in CETA are in the services sector and selected areas of manufacturing. It seems unlikely that CETA will be as all encompassing as the NAFTA with only a few agricultural products excluded from full tariff elimination. Still, it...

International trade in wheat accounts for approximately one third of world grain trade and is expected to double by 2050.The KRU (Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine) countries account for approximately a quarter of world wheat exports and are collectively considered one of the key wheat exporting...

A number of major agricultural exporting countries responded to high food prices from 2007 to 2010 by imposing export restrictions on agricultural commodities in efforts to constrain domestic food-price inflation. These restrictions reduced the volume of internationally traded food, and...

In January 2011, the US passed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) which represents a major legislative initiative to revise and strengthen the regulatory regime pertaining to foodborne illness and contamination. The tightening of the regulatory regime was justified on the basis of a number...