Food Regulation and Trade: Toward a Safe and Open Global System

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 to trade conflicts. The potential for such conflicts increases as more affluent and safety-conscious consumers demand additional regulations in the national food systems. Governments should handle these conflicts in a way that both upholds food safety standards―and public confidence in them―and preserves the framework for trade and the benefits of an open food system.

This book examines the current state of regulation of the increasingly global food system, analyzes the underlying causes of the trade conflicts (both those that are currently evident and those that are waiting in the wings), and outlines the steps that could be taken to ensure that food safety and open trade become, at the least, compatible and, at best, mutually supporting.

Donna Roberts is a senior economist at the Economic Research Service, US Department of Agriculture. She served as a delegate to the WTO's Committee on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures and trade regulations.

David Orden has served since 2007 as Director of the Global Issues Initiative (GII) of Virginia Tech's Institute for Society, Culture and Environment (ISCE) and as a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC.

Tim Josling is a Professor, Emeritus, at the (former) Food Research Institute at Stanford University; a Senior Fellow by courtesy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; and a faculty member at FSI's Europe Center. His research focuses on agricultural policy and food policy in industrialized nations; international trade in agricultural and food products; and the development of the multilateral trade regime.