Large chocolate manufacturers have committed themselves to only using certifiedcocoa beans and some governments want to increase the share of certified cocoaproducts consumed in their countries. Thus, Voluntary Sustainability Standards(VSSs) become quasi-mandatory for cocoa producers and...

Sustainability standards may generate two opposing effects on trade flows between the importer adopting the standard and an affected exporter. First, to the extent a standard leads to an increase in the marginal costs of producing a given product in the exporting country, the standard may lead...