Economics of agro-food safety and international market for agro-food products and legislation Antonio Stasi

INDEX Food Safety regulations International principles on Food Safety International principles and regulations: novel foods Bilateral agreements and food safety SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) agreements Individual country regulations

Food Safety Regulations EX ANTE regulations Standards Inspection Product testing Controlled by a system of incentives or penalties

Food Safety Regulations Direct Regulations Economic incentives and disincentives in attempt to influence the behavior of buyers and/or sellers (taxes or subsidies) Information-based measures (disclosure) Liability laws (degree of penalty, producers liable for injuries caused by defective products) Self regulation and voluntary certifications The company sets, controls and monitors the parameters Certifications approved by third parties Corresponds to reputation based labeling on food products

International principles on Food Safety Rome Declaration on World Food Security (1996) All people have the right to access to safe food FAO (food and agriculture organization) and WHO (world health organization) are responsible for food safety WHO has established a global strategy of surveillance of food-borne diseases.

International principles and regulations Novel Foods Principle of SUBSTANTIAL EQUIVALENCE (OECD) If a product (i.e. GM food) show no significant differences with its conventional counterpart (i.e. non GM) they could be considered substantially equivalent so there is no need to label them differently PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE (EU) /approach Until there is strong evidence of a product having no long term effects on human health and environment consumers have the right to make informed choices, those products, thus, need to be labeled differently

Concern pesticides residues, chemicals on food products Bilateral agreements and food safety SPS (Sanitary and Phytosanitary) Agreeements Concern pesticides residues, chemicals on food products Decided within the context of World Trade Organization (WTO) They are “target” type of standards and products that do not meet those standards cannot be traded General aim is global market harmonization Risk Assessment, transparency based

Individual country regulations Applied to domestic productions not to imports Applied to imported products not to domestic ones Those two could be banned from WTO Regulations applied to domestic and imported goods but foreign firms cannot comply Exposed to WTO judgment Regulations applied to domestic and imported goods and both source firms can comply

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