Harmonization of technical standards is often advocated as a means to remove technical barriers that reduce the welfare gains available from international trade. Organic standards are not currently harmonized internationally. If domestic organic standards reflect consumer tastes, and consumers...

While almost all of the investment in agricultural biotechnology to date has been in temperate crops suitable for developed countries, developing countries are the greatest potential beneficiaries of this major technological advance. To realise this potential requires investment in crops...

The FSMA appears to be a major undertaking with a very large responsibility placed on the FDA. It would seem that bottlenecks to exporting are bound to appear which will be very frustrating for Canadian firms. It is important for Canadian firms and Canadian policy makers to work hard to ensure...

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...

At the time, the negotiation of the SPS agreement was seen as a major accomplishment of the Uruguay Round. One of the first major tests of both the SPS and the WTO's new dispute settlement system was the long standing and acrimonious dispute between the EU and the US and Canada over trade in...

The discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Canada and the United States in 2003 prompted an immediate and decisive reaction from importers, with the closure of most markets to beef and cattle exports from Canada and the United States. Two years later, many of these bans have not...