Public concerns, environmental standards and agricultural trade

In recent years, heightened sensitivity to issues of animal welfare and environmental pollution have given rise to a range of demands upon the farming industry by way of quality controls, codes of good practice and other policy measures. Some of these are endorsed internationally and some are the subject of continuing trade disputes. This work reviews such issues and relates them to agricultural trade and competition.

Organised over three sections the volume opens with an introduction that highlights changes taking place in agriculture on the world market. Agricultural policies in the context of trade liberalisation are examined in Chapter 2 and an overview of these policies in the EU, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand is provided. Chapter 3 addresses the conflicting concerns of developing countries and the increased sensitivity of developed countries to environmental issues together with the role of WTO as the primary regime regulating world trade.

Section 2 of the volume moves to the leading environment and human-health issues in the five regions mentioned above with a chapter dedicated to each of the regions with examples of compliance costs provided for seven main themes. The section closes with a synthesis of the principal environmental and health related standards applying to agriculture in the five regions and areas of clear differences in standards between the countries at farm level.

Section 3 addresses the importance of public concerns in the context of international trade and multilateral trade agreements. Chapter 10 examines the situation from the viewpoint of developing countries and the relativity of compliance costs to overall production costs. The position of a major importer of food is explored in Chapter 11 and Japan is used to highlight the problems. Chapter 12 explores several environmental proposals for reform of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and concludes with some practical guidance on development of domestic environmental policies to avert confrontation within the WTO.

The work will interest academics, students, policy researchers and practitioners in agricultural economics and international trade.

Floor Brouwer is Head of the Research Unit Management of Natural Resources, Agricultural Economics Research Institute, The Hague, Netherlands. David E. Ervin is Professor of Environmental Studies, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, USA.