The global market for agri-food products has been divided for a decade. The division arose over the approval of biotechnology-based innovations – with the European Union temporarily suspending approvals and imports until it could devise a new approval mechanism. Other countries chose between...

As markets become globalized, food safety policy and international trade policy are increasingly intertwined. Globalization also means that food safety incidents are widely reported internationally. One result is that food safety incidents can negatively impact products where no food safety...

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...

This article examines the implications for the international trade environment of public and private standards for food safety and food quality. Public (mandatory) standards are a response to a perceived market failure and include mandatory risk assessment procedures, restrictions on harmful...