Food Safety and Agricultural Health Standards : Challenges and Opportunities for Developing Country Exports

Abstract

This report summarizes a program of research coordinated by the World Bank and carried out from October 2002 to May 2004. The objectives of the program have been to: 1) Highlight the major dynamics in the evolution of important sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS) in selected industrialized countries. 2) Explore the room for maneuver of suppliers of agri-food products in developing countries in the context of evolving regulatory (and commercial) changes and consider the range, appropriateness, and effectiveness of various strategic responses to those changes. 3) Develop a better understanding of the nature and level of the costs of achieving and maintaining compliance (or non-compliance) with international and country-specific SPS standards. The research also identifies and quantifies direct and indirect benefits that may flow from the adoption of the rules, systems, skills, and facilities required to comply with standards. 4) Develop a better understanding of the implications of emerging standards for market and industry structure and wider socio-economic effects. Evidence is sought on how compliance strategies (or the failure to comply with standards) have affected participation by smaller enterprises and farmers in export-oriented supply chains and their impact on employment patterns. 5) Review the scope and nature of ongoing programs of international development agencies to provide technical assistance and other support for capacity-building in trade-related SPS management in low- and middle-income countries, and draw operational lessons from that experience. 6) Draw out the operational implications of these research findings and identify entry points for the World Bank and other development agencies working in this field.