There have been a number of high profile food safety disputes in trade over the past decade. These include the widely publicized dispute at the World Trade Organization between the U.S. and EU over hormone treated beef. Consumers in some industrialized countries have also expressed concern over...

The trade performance of countries in South Asia over the past two decades has been poor relative to other regions. Exports from South Asia have doubled over the past 20 years to approximately USD 100 billion. In contrast, East Asia's exports grew ten times over the same period. The low level of...

Standards and technical regulations exist to protect consumer safety or to achieve other goals, such as ensuring the interoperability of telecommunications systems, for example. Standards and technical regulations can, however, raise substantially both start-up and production costs for firms....