Stringent Maximum Residue Limits, Protectionism, and Competitiveness: The Cases of the US and Canada

Bo Xiong and John Beghin ()

Chapter 12 in Nontariff Measures and International Trade, 2017, pp 193-207 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

Abstract: Maximum residue limits (MRLs) on pesticides and veterinary drugs in plant and animal products are established to promote food safety and animal and plant health. In practice, however, they are often accused of creating unnecessary trade barriers. The controversy is more prominent when a given MRL is stricter than the corresponding international standard developed by Codex. Using the score indices constructed by Li and Beghin (2012), we empirically assess the implications of stringency in MRLs in plant and animal products, relative to Codex levels, for Canadian and US trade performance. We find little evidence that US imports are influenced by domestic stringency or those imposed by its trading partners. However, US exports are negatively affected by stringency in destination markets. Canada’s stringent MRLs facilitate its exports of plant and animal products and these exports do not seem to be impeded by MRL stringency in destination markets. Canada’s imports do not appear to be systematically influenced by either its own or its trading partners’ MRL stringency. We draw implications for the potential harmonization of MRLs between the two countries.

Keywords: Nontariff Measures; Standards; Barrier; NTM; NTB; Technical Barrier; TBT; International Trade; Phytosanitary; SPS; Maximum Residue Limits; MRL; Food Trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdf/10.1142/9789813144415_0012 (application/pdf)
https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/9789813144415_0012 (text/html)
Ebook Access is available upon purchase.

Related works:
Working Paper: Stringent maximum residue limits, protectionism, and competitiveness: the cases of the US and Canada (2013)
Working Paper: Stringent Maximum Residue Limits, Protectionism, and Competitiveness: The Cases of the US and Canada (2012)
Working Paper: Stringent Maximum Residue Limits, Protectionism, and Competitiveness: The Cases of the US and Canada (2012)
Working Paper: Stringent maximum residue limits, protectionism, and competitiveness: the cases of the US and Canada (2012)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:wschap:9789813144415_0012

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in World Scientific Book Chapters from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().