Trade, Standards, and the Political Economy of Genetically Modified Food

Trade, Standards, and the Political Economy of Genetically Modified Food PDF

Author: Kym Anderson

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13:

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"Anderson, Damania, and Jackson develop a common-agency lobbying model to help understand why North America and the European Union have adopted such different policies toward genetically modified (GM) food. Their results show that when firms (in this case farmers) lobby policymakers to influence standards, and consumers and environmentalists care about the choice of standard, it is possible that increased competition from abroad can lead to strategic incentives to raise standards, not just lower them as shown in earlier models. The authors show that differences in comparative advantage in the adoption of GM crops may be sufficient to explain the trans-Atlantic difference in GM policies. On the one hand, farmers in a country with a comparative advantage in GM technology can gain a strategic cost advantage by lobbying for lax controls on GM production and use at home and abroad. On the other hand, when faced with greater competition, the optimal response of farmers in countries with a comparative disadvantage in GM adoption may be to lobby for more-stringent GM standards. So it is rational for producers in the European Union (whose relatively small farms would enjoy less gains from the new biotechnology than broad-acre American farms) to reject GM technology if that enables them and consumer and environmental lobbyists to argue for restraints on imports from GM-adopting countries. This theoretical proposition is supported by numerical results from a global general equilibrium model of GM adoption in America with and without an EU moratorium. This paper a product of the Trade Team, Development Research Groupis part of a larger effort in the group to understand the economic implications of standards and technology policies in a multilateral trading environment"--World Bank web site.

Trade, Standards, and the Political Economy of Genetically Modified Food

Trade, Standards, and the Political Economy of Genetically Modified Food PDF

Author: Kym Anderson

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13:

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Anderson, Damania, and Jackson develop a common-agency lobbying model to help understand why North America and the European Union have adopted such different policies toward genetically modified (GM) food. Their results show that when firms (in this case farmers) lobby policymakers to influence standards, and consumers and environmentalists care about the choice of standard, it is possible that increased competition from abroad can lead to strategic incentives to raise standards, not just lower them as shown in earlier models. The authors show that differences in comparative advantage in the adoption of GM crops may be sufficient to explain the trans-Atlantic difference in GM policies. On the one hand, farmers in a country with a comparative advantage in GM technology can gain a strategic cost advantage by lobbying for lax controls on GM production and use at home and abroad. On the other hand, when faced with greater competition, the optimal response of farmers in countries with a comparative disadvantage in GM adoption may be to lobby for more-stringent GM standards. So it is rational for producers in the European Union (whose relatively small farms would enjoy less gains from the new biotechnology than broad-acre American farms) to reject GM technology if that enables them and consumer and environmental lobbyists to argue for restraints on imports from GM-adopting countries. This theoretical proposition is supported by numerical results from a global general equilibrium model of GM adoption in America with and without an EU moratorium.This paper - a product of the Trade Team, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to understand the economic implications of standards and technology policies in a multilateral trading environment.

The International Politics of Genetically Modified Food

The International Politics of Genetically Modified Food PDF

Author: R. Falkner

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-12-11

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 0230598196

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Genetically modified food is at the heart of a new global conflict over how to govern risky technologies in an era of globalization. This timely collection brings together experts from the fields of IR, environmental studies, trade and law to examine the sources of international friction and to explore the prospects for international co-operation.

Biotechnology Regulation and Trade

Biotechnology Regulation and Trade PDF

Author: Stuart J. Smyth

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-03-02

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 3319532952

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This book discusses the regulatory and trade challenges facing the global adoption of biotechnological products and offers strategies for overcoming these obstacles and moving towards greater global food security. The first section of the book establishes the context of the conflict, discussing the challenges of global governance, international trade, and the history of regulation of genetically modified (GM) crops. In this section, the authors emphasize the shift from exclusively science-based regulation to the more socio-economically focused framework established by the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which was adopted in 2000. The second section of the book provides a snapshot of the current state of international GM crop adoption and regulation, highlighting the US, Canada, and the EU. The final section of the book identifies options for breaking the gridlock of regulation and trade that presently exist. This book adds to the current literature by providing new information about innovative agricultural technologies and encouraging debate by providing an alternative to the narratives espoused by environmental non-governmental organizations. This book will appeal to students of economics, political science, and policy analysis, as well as members of regulatory agencies and agricultural industry firms.

The Political Economy of Genetically Modified Foods

The Political Economy of Genetically Modified Foods PDF

Author: Robert Eugene Evenson

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781843767626

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This important collection prepared by Robert E. Evenson and Terri Raney - leading scholars in the field - focuses on one of the most controversial issues of our time - the genetic modification of agricultural produce. Whilst the US and Canada are supportive of GM crops, the European Union urges other countries to involve the 'precautionary principle' in regulatory policy. This comprehensive volume, which will appeal to scholars and practitioners alike, includes papers discussing this European Union-North American divide and possible resolutions of differences on this subject. Topics examined include: the technology; the industry; farmer adoption; consumer acceptance; economic impacts; the emergence of GM free markets and GM products for developing countries.

When Cooperation Fails

When Cooperation Fails PDF

Author: Mark A. Pollack

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2009-05-21

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 0191568902

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The transatlantic dispute over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has brought into conflict the United States and the European Union, two long-time allies and economically interdependent democracies with a long record of successful cooperation. Yet the dispute - pitting a largely acceptant US against an EU deeply suspicious of GMOs - has developed into one of the most bitter and intractable transatlantic and global conflicts, resisting efforts at negotiated resolution and resulting in a bitterly contested legal battle before the World Trade Organization. Professors Pollack and Shaffer investigate the obstacles to reconciling regulatory differences among nations through international cooperation, using the lens of the GMO dispute. The book addresses the dynamic interactions of domestic law and politics, transnational networks, international regimes, and global markets, through a theoretically grounded and empirically comprehensive analysis of the governance of GM foods and crops. They demonstrate that the deeply politicized, entrenched and path-dependent nature of the regulation of GMOs in the US and the EU has fundamentally shaped negotiations and decision-making at the international level, limiting the prospects for deliberation and providing incentives for both sides to engage in hard bargaining and to "shop" for favorable international forums. They then assess the impacts, and the limits, of international pressures on domestic US and European law, politics and business practice, which have remained strikingly resistant to change. International cooperation in areas like GMO regulation, the authors conclude, must overcome multiple obstacles, legal and political, domestic and international. Any effective response to this persistent dispute, they argue, must recognize both the obstacles to successful cooperation, and the options that remain for each side when cooperation fails.

Agricultural Biotechnology and Transatlantic Trade

Agricultural Biotechnology and Transatlantic Trade PDF

Author: Grant Isaac

Publisher: CABI

Published: 2002-02-21

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 9780851997001

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Genetically modified (GM) agricultural crops which are approved as safe in North America (Canada and the United States) are facing significant regulatory hurdles in gaining access to the European Union. The development and commercialization of GM crops illustrate a complex challenge facing trade diplomacy - the challenge of regulatory regionalism created by social regulatory barriers.

Governing the Transatlantic Conflict over Agricultural Biotechnology

Governing the Transatlantic Conflict over Agricultural Biotechnology PDF

Author: Joseph Murphy

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2007-01-24

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 1134190921

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Delays in approving genetically modified crops and foods in the European Union have led to a high profile trade conflict with the United States. This book analyses the EU-US conflict and uses it as a case study to explore the governance of new technologies. The transatlantic conflict over GM crops and food has been widely attributed to regulatory differences that divide the EU and the US. Going beyond common stereotypes of these differences and their origins, this book analyses the conflict through contending coalitions of policy actors operating across the Atlantic. Governing the Transatlantic Conflict over Agricultural Biotechnology focuses on interactions between the EU and the US, rather than on EU-US comparisons. Drawing on original research and interviews with key policy actors, the book shows how EU-US efforts to harmonise regulations for agricultural biotechnology created the context in which activists could generate a backlash against the technology. In this new context regulations were shaped along different lines. Joseph Murphy and Les Levidow provide new insights by elaborating critical perspectives on global governance, issue-framing, standard-setting and regulatory science. This accessible book will appeal to undergraduate and post-graduate students, academics and policy-makers working on a wide range of issues covered by political science, policy studies, international relations, economics, geography, business management, environmental and development studies, science and technology studies.

Crime Political Economy and Genetically Modified Food

Crime Political Economy and Genetically Modified Food PDF

Author: WALTERS REECE

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-08

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9781904385943

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The GM debate has been ongoing for over a decade, yet it has been contained in the scientific world and presented in technical terms. This book aims to bring the debates about GM food into the social and criminological arena. On September 11 2003, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety became international law. As a result, a vast number of practices currently adopted by the US and UK Governments as well as numerous bio-tech industries became illegal. To date, criminal activity and GM food has been reported in the press, however, it has been confined to the actions of protest groups destroying GM crops and testing laboratories. This book highlights the criminal actions of state and corporate officials including the illegal use of genetic technologies, the illegal production and sale of GM products, the economic exploitation of trade in third world countries, the monopolisation of seeds and economic disaster for GM farmers, biopiracy and the manipulation of science - to mention just a few.

Genetically Engineered Crops

Genetically Engineered Crops PDF

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2017-01-28

Total Pages: 607

ISBN-13: 0309437385

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Genetically engineered (GE) crops were first introduced commercially in the 1990s. After two decades of production, some groups and individuals remain critical of the technology based on their concerns about possible adverse effects on human health, the environment, and ethical considerations. At the same time, others are concerned that the technology is not reaching its potential to improve human health and the environment because of stringent regulations and reduced public funding to develop products offering more benefits to society. While the debate about these and other questions related to the genetic engineering techniques of the first 20 years goes on, emerging genetic-engineering technologies are adding new complexities to the conversation. Genetically Engineered Crops builds on previous related Academies reports published between 1987 and 2010 by undertaking a retrospective examination of the purported positive and adverse effects of GE crops and to anticipate what emerging genetic-engineering technologies hold for the future. This report indicates where there are uncertainties about the economic, agronomic, health, safety, or other impacts of GE crops and food, and makes recommendations to fill gaps in safety assessments, increase regulatory clarity, and improve innovations in and access to GE technology.