Among other functions, federal marketing orders allow producers to impose quality regulations and inspections, and, under the section 8e provision, require imports to be subject to the same quality standards and regulations as the domestic industry. As efforts to liberalize trade continue apace,...

In the policy arena, there is a demand for "trade distortion indicators", but many of the traditional indices are difficult to compute and interpret. Recent developments in the literature have led to a new indicator: the Trade Restrictiveness Index (TRI). This paper analyzes some problems...

In the analysis of commodity markets, comparatively little attention is paid to the fact that commodity exports are intermediates that form inputs into the food processing and retail sectors in developed countries. Exporting countries correspondingly argue that access to developed country...

Country of origin labeling (COOL) is a common practice. It occurs routinely for many products in many places, but the US implementation of mandatory COOL for meat, whose purpose is to identify the origin of the livestock used to produce the meat, generated much controversy and a major WTO...

After several years of informal and formal negotiations, South Korea and the United States reached an agreement to move towards free trade in April 2007. Currently, both countries await congressional approval before the agreement can be implemented. This study explains the substance of the...