Empirically assessing sanitary and phytosanitary regulations has proven difficult because most data sources indicate whether a regulation exists but provide no information on the type or importance of the respective measure. In this article, we construct a novel database of U.S. phytosanitary...

This paper was presented at the INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN LIVESTOCK PRODUCTS SYMPOSIUM in Auckland, New Zealand, January 18-19, 2001. The Symposium was sponsored by: the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium, the Venture Trust, Massey University, New Zealand, and the Centre for...

A synopsis is presented of challenges faced and WTO performance in disciplining national technical measures to achieve legitimate objectives in a least-trade-distorting manner. Importance of the measures and international disciplines are reviewed and evidence presented from multiple perspectives...

Technical trade barriers are increasingly important in the international trade of agricultural products. Designing technical trade measures that can satisfy the growing demand for food safety, product differentiation, environmental amenities, and product information at the lowest cost to the...

This paper was presented at the INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN LIVESTOCK PRODUCTS SYMPOSIUM in Auckland, New Zealand, January 18-19, 2001. The Symposium was sponsored by: the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium, the Venture Trust, Massey University, New Zealand, and the Centre for...

Technical regulations are increasingly visible in agricultural trade, yet their idiosyncratic nature has limited prior aggregate analysis. This article draws on a unique data source for systematic enumeration of the technical regulations questioned by one exporter among all of its trading...

Guarding the safety of a nation's food supply, ensuring quality, and providing information to consumers so that they can make informed food purchase choices are widely accepted as universal obligations of governments. But differences in the way that governments fulfill these obligations can lead...