review of literature - shodhgangashodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/6693/7/07_chapter...
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.0 Introduction
Chapter I highlighted the fact that despite high production potential of India in most
of the globally trade fruits and vegetables, India still does not figure amongst the
global exporter of fresh fruits and vegetables (FFV). Also major export markets of
India have traditionally been the neighboring countries, where the unit value
realization is quite low. India does not have its presence in the major importers of
FFV, which include the EU, USA, Japan and Australia. This is despite the fact that the
consumption levels of FFV and hence the imports have been increasing in these
markets.
Among the factors responsible for the inability of Indian exporters to access the
major markets is the growing incidence of non‐tariff measures (NTMs). The market
access barriers can take various forms such as technical standards, import quotas,
voluntary export restraint, customs procedures, restrictive state trading
interventions, rules of origin and domestic content requirement schemes.
Technical standards, which can take the form of sanitary and phytosanitary
measures (SPS) and technical barriers to trade (TBT), account for around a third of
all NTMs, and their incidence is steadily increasing1. An analysis of trends of these
NTBs highlights the fact that the use of NTBs based on quantity and price controls
and finance measures has decreased dramatically, from a little less than 45 percent
of tariff lines faced by NTBs in 1994 to 15 percent in 2004, however, the use of NTBs
other than the above mentioned increased from 55 percent of all NTBs in 1994 to 85
percent in 2004 (UNCTAD 2005 estimates).
1Ndayisenga and Kinsey (1994)
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Frequency of NTMs is generally higher for agricultural products than for
manufactures, and minerals and fuel and in case of agricultural products, developed
countries and Quad countries (Canada, Japan, EU and USA) have higher frequency of
NTMs than that of other countries2.
2.1 Issues under Non‐Tariff Barriers
About 14% of Indian agricultural exports are subjected to only NTMs and
79% are subjected to both Tariffs & NTMs. There is widespread use of NTMs
by both developed and developing countries. In major importing countries,
NTM coverage is 100% across commodity groups.
It is estimated that over 50 percent of Indian exports to EU, less than 33
percent of exports to US while 45 percent of exports to Japan are subject to
NTMs. In Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Romania non‐tariff measures are
applied widely to food drink and tobacco products. The non‐tariff measures
applied in these countries are predominantly for the protection of human,
animal and plant health; while in China measures most frequently applied is
import inspection.(OECD report)
There is wide difference in the NTMs faced by a single product in different
export destinations thereby making it difficult for an exporting country to
conform to the requirements of all importing countries. For e.g. standards for
Salmonella in poultry imports vary tremendously across countries. Only
poultry product imports that are fully cooked and canned are allowed in
Chile proving zero tolerance for Salmonella while Japan reserve the right to
test poultry shipments for salmonella, while others don’t consider target
2Deb. (2006),Bacchetta and Bora (2001)
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Salmonella in their import requirements3. Permitted levels of Aflatoxin in
Chilies are different for different European countries: B1 & B2+G1+G2 should
be less than 4 ppb in Germany whereas it is < 5 ppb in Sweden and Finland
and 10 ppb in Spain. Similar is the case with standards on pesticide residues
followed by different European countries including Germany, Netherlands
and UK.
Further, a single product may face a number of NTMs in the same market.
This is particularly the case with Malaysia & Oman for Meat exports, USA &
Japan for fish exports, Australia, Japan, USA, Mexico & Singapore for Fruits &
Vegetables. Across markets, the NTMs vary For example, e.g. malt extract in
USA faces tariff rate quotas (TRQ), SPS and TBT. Similarly food preparations
in Malaysia face beside a number of SPS and TBT including packing and
labeling requirements. (WITS 2009).
Past trends show that for export markets for FFV where the tariff barriers
are low the NTMs are high and vice versa. This is very clear by the
comparison between table 1.9 and table 2.1. MFN tariff rates barriers on
fruits and vegetables are very low in case of countries like Australia, Canada
and USA ranging from 0‐8% only, however the NTM% as depicted below
highlights maximum percentage of tariff lines (100%) covered under non‐
tariff barriers for these markets. However, in case of Japan, the tariff range is
very high, while the non‐tariff coverage is very low.
Both tariffs as well as non‐tariff barriers are together restricting the fruits
and vegetable exports from India to important developing country markets
as is seen in case of Argentina and Brazil.
3Mitchell and Busby (2003)
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Table 2.1: Percentage coverage under Nontariff barrier for FFV in major markets
Banana Pineapple Guava Grapes Apple Tomato Onion Cucumber
EU 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
USA 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Canada 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 80% 84.6% 80%
Japan 66.70% 0% 0% 100% 0% 0% 0% 0%
Australia 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Argentina 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Brazil 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Source: WITS trade data base
These non‐tariff barriers on fruits and vegetable exports from India have been in
various forms including Certification, subsidy, documentation and standards.
However, the NTMs in the form other than standards have been prevalent in
developing countries like China, Korea and Saudi Arabia; however in developed
countries like Australia, New Zealand and EU markets, standards are the only form
of NTMs applied for FFV. This is illustrated through the NTM database developed by
Department of Commerce, Government of India for the year 2010 in table 2.2.
Coverage of NTMs is generally higher for agricultural products than average
coverage applicable for primary products and for all products and especially
throughout developed countries4 . It is further seen that in case of the agro and
processed food exports, these NTBs are majorly in the form of stringent food safety
regulations in the importing markets of the developed countries. Trade in these
products is governed by a growing array of standards related to the products
themselves and to the processes by which they are produced and handled. These
standards are in the form of stringent food safety measures and bio security issue in
most of the cases. This can also be seen by the coverage of NTM as 100% in case of
grapes (Table 2.1). Similar coverage has been witnessed in case of banana wherein
4Bora et al( 2002,(Ndayisenga and Kinse,( 1994; Thilmany and Barrett ( 1997).
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almost 66.7% of tariff lines are covered under some or the other non‐tariff measure.
Lack of harmonization of MRL levels has been reported in case of Germany where
these levels are set much stringent than those set by EU.
This is also illustrated by the rate of notifications of SPS measures to GATT/WTO
over the last two decades. FFV is one of the categories of food items most frequently
affected by SPS measures. Over 30 per cent of the specific trade concerns brought to
the attention of the WTO SPS Committee in the period 2001‐2005 referred to SPS
measures affecting trade in FFV. Amongst fruits and vegetables, higher number of
notifications has been notified in case of Fruits as compared to vegetables.
Since then, there have been a growing number of notifications coming from
developing countries as compared to the ones submitted by the developed countries
during the period 2005‐2011. Annexure 2.1 indicates this number to be highest in
case of USA with total number of SPS notifications on fruits and vegetables
amounting to 2401, followed by Japan 1371 and EU with 589. Amongst developing
countries, Brazil tops the list with 1083 notifications during the same time period
followed by Chile with 490, Dominica Republic and Peru with 478 and 438
notifications on fruits and vegetables respectively.
Figure 2.1: Increasing number of SPS notifications for developing countries
Source: Author’s compilation on the basis of WTO SPS notifications (2005‐2011)
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2.2 Food Safety Regulations
Beginning in the mid‐to‐late 1980s and continuing through the subsequent decade,
a continuous series of food‐safety events occurred—among them serious outbreaks
of food‐borne illness, new scientific links between animal and human diseases, and
discoveries of tainted food and feed supplies—accompanied by an array of scares
with uncertain or unfounded scientific bases (Table 2.3 & Box 2.1). Alongside
broader demographic and social trends, these events have changed the nature of
food markets in industrialized countries.
Therefore with the increased dependence of the consumers on the processed and
semi processed food items, the observation of the hygienic practices in food chain –
processing, transport, storage etc. has gained further importance. These measures
termed as Sanitary and phytosanitary measure refers to any measure, procedure,
requirement, or regulation, taken by governments to protect human, animal, or
plant life or health from the risks arising from the spread of pests, diseases, disease‐
causing organisms, or from additives, toxins, or contaminants found in food,
beverages, or feedstuffs.
Box 2.1: Death toll rises in cucumber E.coli outbreak(30-May-2011)
The virulent strain of E.coli 0104 thought to have been carried on Spanish cucumbers has now killed 10 and sickened 1,000 as the effects of the contamination crisis spread across Europe.
Europewide alert
The bacteria at the centre of the food contamination incident are enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), a powerful STEC ‐ shiga toxin‐producing strain of the bug. Victims presenting with Hemolytic‐uremic Syndrome (HUS), which causes kidney problems and bloody diarrhoea, are those most at risk. Cases in France, the UK, Sweden, Denmark and The Netherlands have also been reported – although these are so far believed to concern either German nationals visiting these countries or persons who had visited Germany.
Closely monitoring
Food safety officials in Austria confirmed suspect Spanish cucumbers from MalagancompanyFrunet SL had entered the country via a German wholesaler. It added the recall included tomatoes and eggplants.The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) said it was following the situation closely, while the Commission said it would be monitoring developments daily through the RASFF network and the Early Warning and Response System (EWRS).
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The SPS Agreement, which is one of the covered agreements of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), establishes a multilateral mechanism to protect human, animal,
and plant health. It covers basic rights and obligations; harmonization; equivalency;
risk assessments; pest‐ or disease‐free areas; transparency; control, inspection, and
approval procedures; technical assistance; special and differential treatment;
consultations and dispute settlement; administration; and implementation.
Annexure 2.2 summarizes the various articles under WTO SPS agreement.
To eliminate disguised trade restrictions, Article 3 of the SPS Agreement recognizes
the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CODEX), the International Office of Epizootics
(OIE), and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) for their expertise
in setting standards. The Agreement states that harmonization between nations will
be promoted by following the standards set by these three international scientific
organizations.(Harmonisation)
However Article 2 of the SPS Agreement recognizes the sovereign right of each
country to set its own food safety, and animal and plant health standards. While
encouraging countries to use international standards, the SPS text clearly recognizes
that, under certain circumstances, countries have the right to maintain standards
that are stricter than international standards to protect human, animal and plant
health, as long as the more stringent standard is justified by science and that they
should be applied only to the extent necessary to achieve the necessary level of
protection. For this the agreement requires that WTO members apply, to the extent
necessary, SPS measures based on scientific principles and not maintain them
without sufficient scientific evidence.
SPS measures must be based on a risk assessment. Where scientific information is
insufficient to establish an SPS standard, the agreement allows a country to adopt a
provisional standard based on pertinent information. Countries are obligated to
develop an objective assessment of risk within a reasonable period of time and
share this assessment with exporting countries. (Temporary measure)
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Article 4 recognizes that different methods may be used to achieve the same level of
health protection. If an exporting country's measures ensure the level of health
protection desired by the importing country, then those measures may be
acceptable, even if they differ from those used by the importing country.
(Equivalence)
In case of disease outbreak, SPS agreement establishes an "area within a country" or
a "regionalization" approach. In other words, exports should be possible from a
particular area within a country if a country can demonstrate that the area is, and is
likely to remain, free of a pest or disease, even if the surrounding areas of the
country are not free of the pest or disease.(Pest or DiseaseFree Status as addressed
in Article 6). In any case, countries must notify their trading partners when they
intend to establish SPS measures and seek their comments on proposed laws. Under
transparency norms of SPS agreement, countries should also make information
available to interested parties about proposed and adopted SPS regulations and
should notify the WTO of any changes in health‐related measures that may have a
significant impact on trade.(Transparency as per Article 7 and Annex B).
However, despite the rules and regulations being laid by SPS agreement, countries
do face situations of violation of these regulations in which case there is a formal
measure of dispute settlement by raising the issue in the WTO committee for SPS
measure followed by Article 11 of WTO on dispute settlement mechanism. If the
panel determines that the SPS measure is inconsistent with WTO rules, the
importing country must either change the measure or negotiate some form of
compensation to the country or countries adversely affected by the unjustified
measure. If the importing country fails to make either of these remedies, the
complaining party will be authorized to retaliate through the WTO process. The
growing number of dispute settlement cases on SPS issues therefore put forth the
extent to which these measures are hampering the market access of agricultural
goods in the developed markets.
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2.3 Trade impacts of Emerging Food Safety Standards
The number of standards and regulations is constantly increasing in most countries
because of the expansion in volume, variety and technical sophistication of products
manufactured and traded. Nowadays, standards and regulations aim at complying
with a variety of aims and tasks. Some of them are traditional ‐‐ such as minimizing
risks, providing information to consumers about the characteristics of products,
providing information to producers about market needs and expectations,
facilitating market transactions, raising efficiency and contributing to economies of
scale. Others are less traditional ‐‐ such as serving as benchmarks for technological
capability and network compatibility and enhancing technology diffusion.
Table 2.4: Classification of SPS standards
Import Bans Technical specifications Information requirements
Total ban Partial ban
Process standards
Product standards
Technical standards
Labeling requirements
Controls on voluntary claims
Historically, the standards applied to international trade in horticultural products
were quality standards related to varietal selection, physical and visual
characteristics, tolerances for foreign matter, and other variables. In recent years
the standards are also evolved for packaging materials for fresh and processed
horticultural goods. Some countries have also given much greater attention to
managing food safety and plant health risks by adopting a range of measures,
including outright banning of products (or suppliers), specifying the conditions
under which products must be produced and/or the characteristics of the end
product, or mandating labeling and other information requirements. In some
countries, if the importers discover deficiencies in a cargo of a product originating
from a specific country in their random inspection, they may put a ban on imports of
that product from that country, causing export losses.
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For example, in 1998, Saudi Arabia banned imports of live animals from a couple of
East African countries, due to the breaking out of Rift Valley fever in the region.5
Whereas SPS standards and regulations in themselves may not admit to be a trade
barrier their adoption in practice can be used as a trade barrier in the importing
countries. There is a wider recognition that technical measures can act as a barrier
to trade in a similar manner to tariffs and quantitative restrictions6 in general7 and
especially of agricultural and food products from developing countries.89. For
instance despite the desirable requirement of harmonization, provision of article 3.3
in WTO SPS agreement allows a member country to introduce SPS measures more
stringent than stipulated in the relevant international standards and some countries
have taken advantage of this and set several SPS measures more stringent than
relevant Codex standards10.
The proliferation of the food safety standards currently occurring both at the public
level (i.e. Codex Alimentarius, regional blocs, and individual countries) and at the
private level (through supply chain requirements and in response to the demands of
consumer and other civil society organizations) without any scientific justification is
an example of the same. The private food safety guidelines and standards (EUREP‐
GAP, HACCP, BRC, SQF, and ISO 9000) are imposed by importers and retailers at
different levels in the food supply chain production, handling, and distribution of
fresh fruits and vegetables & fish products. Moreover, the standards are changing
5Mehdi Shafaeddin (2001) 6Laird &Yeat(1990), Vogel (1995), Skyes(1995). 7Petrey and Johnson (1993); Ndayisenga and Kinsey (1994); Thilmany and Barrett (1997); Hillman (1997);
Sykes (1995); National Research Council (1995) 8UNCTAD (1997); Singh (1994); FAO (1999); FAO (1998); UNCTAD/ Commonwealth Secretariat (1996);
UNCTAD (1998). Henson, S.J., Loader, R.J., Swinbank, A., Bredahl, M. and Lux, N. (2000)
9 World Bank (2001), Donovan, Jason A., Julie A. Caswell, and ElisabeteSalay (2001)
10 A study byShafaeddin highlights that the number of maximum residual levels (MRLs) of chemicals, pesticides, etc. set
by the EU, US and Japan are over 22,000, 8,600 and 9,000 respectively, which far exceed that of Codex which is set at 2,500.
The new harmonized 1998 EU standards for Maximum level of aflatoxin B1 is 2 ppb (parts per billion) as compared with 9
ppb for the Codex International Standard. Such stringent standards act as a disguised measure of import protection.
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not only at the entry point into these markets (at the border through government
mandated SPS standards) but even more importantly, among consumers, and
among retail chains.
The chief concern of the developing countries about SPS requirements therefore is
that they will impede their access to the developed country markets. The capacity of
the developing country exporters to enter the markets of the developed countries
will depend critically on their ability to meet stringent food safety standards
imposed by the latter.
Importing countries may deliberately craft SPS measures that impose a cost or other
disadvantage on foreign competitors to provide protection for domestic producers.
Second even when comparable SPS measures are applied in developed countries to
both domestic and imported products, they can act to impede imports from
developing countries because of asymmetry in compliance cost11.
11Prema‐chandraAthukorala&SisiraJayasuriya: “Food Safety Issues, Trade and WTO Rules: A
Developing Country Perspective” (2003)
Box 2.2: Pesticide-tainted pears spark EU emergency measures (Rory Harrington, 06-Nov-2009)
“The European Commission has imposed emergency measures on pear imports from Turkey after some shipments were found to contain pesticide residues over 1,400 times above acceptable levels”.
Identifying the potentially “high level of risk”, the EC has ordered member states to increase testing of all Turkish pears after inspections repeatedly found levels of the pesticide amitraz on the fruit that exceeded the acceptable threshold – the Acute Reference Dose (ARfD). The EC took action yesterday after numerous breaches were reported via the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) over a two‐year period between 2007 and 2009.
“Given the high level of risk to which European consumers may be exposed, Member States would control at least 10 per cent of consignments of pears originating from Turkey for the presence of amitraz at import,” said a draft EC decision. “Given the urgency it is appropriate to adopt these emergency measures in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 53(1) of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002,” said the EC’s draft decision, expected to be ratified early next week.
Under Article 53 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, the EC can adopt “emergency measures for food and feed imported from a third country in order to protect human health, animal health or the environment, where the risk cannot be contained satisfactorily by means of measures taken by the Member States individually”.
National food safety bodies must carry out documentary, identity and physical checks, including laboratory analysis on fresh pears falling within CN codes 0808 20 10 and 0808 20 50 originating in or consigned from Turkey. Shipments will be detained while awaiting test results, said the EC.
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All this enhances the producer’s cost of compliance in terms of changes in
regulations, modification of the product to satisfy the requirement of the standard,
cost of testing and certification procedures, institutional arrangements, cost of
delays that may be associated with the procedures as well as the cost imposed by
the non‐compliance with a standard which then influences the consumers
purchasing decision, thus imparting an undesirable capital‐bias into the food
processing export sectors of developing countries like India.
Therefore if the compliance strategies are not adequately supported then the
proliferation of standards could certainly affect the magnitude of the opportunities
facing Indian suppliers who may lack the public and private assets to meet the
technical and market requirements. This is depicted by the fact that despite such
vast potential of India’s food processing sector, India’s share in the international
food trade is miniscule 1.5 percent as described in the above section. Hence it is
important to study the cost component associated with complying with
international agro food standard as well as the cost of non‐compliance.
Hence, it is widely acknowledged that SPS measures can act to impede trade in
agricultural and food products12. The trade impacts of SPS measures can be
therefore be conveniently grouped into three categories. Firstly, they can prohibit
trade by imposing an import ban or by prohibitively increasing production and
marketing costs. Secondly, they can divert trade from one trading partner to another
by laying down regulations that discriminate across potential suppliers. Thirdly,
they can reduce overall trade flows by increasing costs or raising barriers for all
potential suppliers.
Various studies have been undertaken to understand the trade impact of SPS
measures, however despite the fact that there is widespread use of SPS by both
developed and developing countries, to date, this trade impact has been most widely
acknowledged in a developed country context. As of April 2002, over 250 disputes
12Petrey and Johnson, 1993; Ndayisenga and Kinsey, 1994; Thilmany and Barrett, 1997; Hillman, 1997; Skyes, 1995;
National Research Council, 1995; Unnevehr, 1999; Jaffee, 1999; Digges et al, 1997
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had formally been raised under the WTO dispute settlement system. Of these 20
alleged violation of SPS agreement wherein developed countries including EU, USA&
Japan were involved13. Most of the studies have therefore dealt with SPS issued
faced by exporters from developed countries14.
Figure 2.2: Respondents of WTO SPS Dispute Settlement cases (19952011)
Source: Author’s calculations on the basis of WTO Dispute cases 1995‐2011
On the other hand the list of complaint from developing countries outnumbers the
developed countries stating the growing importance of SPS as trade barriers for
developing countries15 . Stringent SPS Standards set by developed countries
especially EU16coupled with lack of technical & economical resources of developing
13Two cases were regarding EC ban on imports of meat treated with growth‐ promoting hormones, brought forward by
US &Canada. Another case also brought forward by Canada, dealt with Australia’s import restrictions on fresh chilled or
frozen salmon. In yet another case USA complained about Japan’s requirement for testing each variety of a fruit for
efficiency of fumigation treatment. Thus there has been one case in each of the three areas of application of the SPS
Agreement: food safety (hormones), animal health (salmon) and plant health (variety testing). (WTO,2008: “ Dispute
Settlement cases in SPS”) 14Robers and DeRemer 1997, Weyerbrock and Xia 2000, Messerlin 2001).Thornsbury et al. (1997) estimate the total
impact of technical barriers on US exports of agricultural products in 1996 was $ 4097 million. Of this, 90%
was due to measures covered by the SPS agreement. The impact of the food safety standards in particular
was estimated to have been around 2288 million$.Calvin and Krisoff (1998) assess the impact of phytosanitary
standards on US imports of apples into Japan, South Korea and Mexico over the period 1994/95 to 1995/96.
The impact of phytosanitary standards is estimated to be equivalent to a tariff rate of up to 58 per cent. 15(UNCTAD, 1997c; Singh, 1994; FAO 1999; UNCTAD/Common wealth Secretariat, 1996; UNCTAD, 1998),
Hooker, N.H (1999)
16 Henson, S.J., Loader, R.J., Swinbank, A., Bredahl, M. and Lux, N. (2000)
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countries limits the market access. For instance, between 1991 and 1996 a company
in Vietnam exported most of its products to the EU, where they had contracts with
buyers in Belgium, France, Italy and Spain. Since the EU introduced new sanitary
requirements in 1991 and required compliance by 1997, Vietnamese companies
were required to obtain approval prior to export. As a result, exports to the EU
declined dramatically17. Similarly EU’s enforcement of zero tolerance for banned
chloramphenicol and nitrofuran chemicals in shrimp destroyed Thai shrimp
shipments in 2001 & 0218.
In other cases, imports may not be prohibited. However, certain restrictions may be
put in place, for example border inspection requirements, that effectively bar
imports because of the cost and/ or time involved. For example, in the case of
Tanzania, fish and fish product exports were around 48,000 tonnes in 1997 and
accounted for 10.2 per cent of total exports by value. In December 1997, the EU
imposed restrictions on imports of fish from a number of countries bordering Lake
Victoria, namely Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique. These restrictions
reflected concerns about sanitary standards and the control systems in place in
these countries19.
A penetrating analysis20 of the trade impact of a 1998 EC regulation that raised the
maximum permissible level of a certain type of aflatoxin (a toxic substance) in
foodstuffs and animal feed to a higher level than international standards specified
by the Codex Alimentarius suggest that the EU standards, which would reduce
health risk by approximately 1.4 deaths per billion a year would reduce exports by
more that 60% or US670 billion from the 9 countries, as compared with regulation
based on the international (Codex) standard.
Exporters to the EU are experiencing a steady rise in protectionism, due to SPS
regulations set beyond genuine and scientifically based safety needs. Due to the
17World Bank, 2001 18Manarungsan et al, 2005 19World Bank (2005) 20Otsuki, Sewadesh and Wilson (2000)
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tightening of standards, the number of rejections of imported goods to the EU
increased from 230 cases in 1998 to 1,520 cases in 2003. Rejections were most
frequent in fish and crustaceans, meat, fruits and vegetables21.
Srilanka faced similar SPS related quality problems in its produce, particularly
species in terms of presence of mould, high moisture level and aflatoxin. The quality
related problems were mainly due to cultural practices and technological limitations.
The estimated average volume loss was about 5,500 metric tones during 1999‐2000
and the estimated value of foreign exchange loss due to non‐compliance was
reported to be US$ 2.9 million per year. The net loss of employment was 2400
persons every year as a consequence of the loss of export volume22.During 1984‐94,
over 3000 Gautemala shipments valued over 80 US$ million were detained and/or
rejected at US port of entry for chemical residue violations in case of snow pea
exports. It was found that chemical overuse was the primary factor contributing to
high detentions and rejection rates for shipments at US ports23.
Over the period August to December 1997, exports of frozen shrimps from
Bangladesh were banned by the EU because of concerns about hygienic standards in
processing facilities and the efficiency of controls undertaken by Bangladesh
Government inspectors. The loss of revenue of shrimp processors as a result of the
ban was estimated to be 14.6$ mn24. The costs of upgrading sanitary conditions in
the Bangladesh frozen shrimp industry to satisfy the EU’s hygienic requirements
was estimated to around 17.6 million US$ was spent to upgrade plants over the
period 1997‐98, giving an average expenditure per plant of $239,630.
In the case of Tanzania, fish and fish product exports were around 48,000 tonnes in
1997 and accounted for 10.2 per cent of total exports by value. In December 1997,
the EU imposed restrictions on imports of fish from a number of countries 21Ferrer (2006) 22 Hearth (2001) 23 Sullivan et al 24Cato and LimaSantas (1998), Rahman, 2000. Khatun (2006)
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bordering Lake Victoria, namely Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique. Failure
to comply with SPS standards results into loss of export revenue, employment and
income as in case of fish export by Tanzania experienced a daily loss of export
revenue of approx THz 80 million25due to specific cause of cholera epidemic in 1991
and fish poisoning in 1999.26 These restrictions reflected concerns about sanitary
standards and the control systems in place in these countries.
A broader indication of the impact of SPS requirements on developing country
exports of agricultural and food products are provided by data on rejections
following border inspection in developed countries. These data are only
systematically collected and public ally available for the US. Over the period June
1996 to 1997, there were significant rejections of imports from Africa, Asia and
Latin America and Carribean due to microbiological contamination, filth and
decomposition. This indicates considerable problems that developing countries
have in meeting basic food hygiene requirements. The cost of rejection at the border
can be considerable, including loss of product value, transport and other export
costs and product re‐export or destructions.
At the global level, the following products, ranked in order of the proportion of trade
affected, have been the most important products impacted by border rejection
based on technical standards during 2000‐01: fish and fishery products, meat and
diary products, "other processed products", fruits and vegetables and their products
and nuts and spices, animal feed and grain, tropical beverages, oil seeds, textiles
fibbers, drinks, tobacco/cigarettes and sugar and confectionery27. The products for
which SPS requirements had been a particular problem were meat/meat products,
fish/fish products and fruit and vegetables/fruit and vegetable products.
25Musondo&Mbowe (2001) 26Noor, H. (2000); “Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and their Impact on Kenya”, and Ndaba, M. (2000
); “Impact of SPS on fish and horticultural products from East African Countries, The case of Tanzania” and
Waniala, N. (2000) in “Impact Of SPS Measures On Uganda Fish Exports” 27FAO (2002), World Bank(2005)
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Various studies have been undertaken to analyse the impact of SPS measures to be
an impediment to exports for example fish (ESCAP, 1996; Josupiet, 1997; Cato,
1998); spices (UNCTAD/Commonwealth Secretariat, 1996); oilseeds, oils & fats
(FAO, 1998); livestock products (FAO, 1994; Colby, 1997; Petey& Johnson, 1995;
Johnson, 1997) and horticultural products (Giles, 1997; Gilmour and Oxley, 1998;
Kortbech‐Oleson, 1997; Sullivan et al, 1999). This is further highlighted by few
prominent cases in various developing countries including India.
However, the analysis of all these reports indicated that the sector which seems to
be most affected by these trade restrictive measures remains to be the horticultural
sector. This is further illustrated by the case of Zimbabwean horticultural produce
imports to the EU which highlights that some exporters face problems due to the
length of time necessary to demonstrate compliance with SPS measures. Delays
might be as a result of hold ups at the border of the importing country, or of
domestic government or exporter dilatoriness. The analysis of the case of Egyptian
potato exports to the EU and disease‐free areas describes that conformity
assessment procedures can also be complicated and costly to implement. Further,
there may be cultural differences in the types and detail of information required by
the EU, for example, and that generally regarded as satisfactory in developing
countries.
Legislation in the EU and requirements of the supermarkets have also resulted in
the concentration of the fresh vegetable export trade in few large firms and have
shifted production to large farms, many of which are owned by exporters28. These
trends have marginalized small and medium‐sized exporters and small growers. The
increasingly strict EU rules on minimum residue levels (MRLs) and social and
environmental public pressure on horticulture exporters have had both positive and
negative impact on producers. The rules have benefited workers by giving them
access to better healthcare. The rules have, in addition, created incentives for
technology development. On the negative side, MRL requirements have proved to be
28Dolan et al. (1999), AgayoOgambi, 2003
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a major hindrance for smallholders and have contributed to the declining role of
small‐scale farmers in the industry.
During the period June 1999 to June 2000, 13,707.7 metric tons (1.3 %) of produce
was rejected during inspection due to the presence of pests and diseases. The pests
and diseases were mainly in fresh produce. In the following year, June 2000 to June
2001, 120 tons of produce meant for export were rejected due to the presence of
regulated harmful organisms. Advice notices were given for 1007 tons of produce
for quality improvement. In the year June 2002 to June 2003, 150 tons of assorted
plant materials were rejected from entering export markets. In the three years,
therefore, considerable amounts of produce were not exported due to SPS29.
The standards imposed by some retailers in the importing developed countries have
nothing to do with the SPS Agreement. Nevertheless, since they are in practice
requirements for purchases from other countries, they involve additional costs that
small firms and farmers in developing countries often cannot bear. For example, to
be able to sell to some UK supermarkets, there is a need to obtain BRC (British
Retail Consortium) certification which requires large investment in upgrading pack‐
house facilities. According to the World Bank, the amount of investment for such
upgrading for vegetables is estimated to be nearly 11% of an annual sale of $1.4
million.
Therefore several challenges posed by these SPS issues are: First, preferential
treatment is not accorded in areas covered by the sanitary and phytosanitary
standards (SPS).Second, meeting the SPS is very challenging for agro‐food exporters
and this has been aggravated by the multiplicity of requirements across different
markets. Third, the way standards are set and the process of challenging their
legality poses enormous difficulties to a country that lacks adequate technical and
negotiating skills. The failure of one exporter within a country to meet the required
29Baraza 2004
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standards generates repercussions for all exporters from that country – a regulation
that is particularly unjust30.
There has been the paucity of international standards for many agro‐food products.
Over the period of 1995‐1999, the vast majority of food safety and agricultural
health measures notified to WTO were the ones for which no international
standards existed31. With specific reference to the horticultural products32, it was
found that over the same period, two third of the notifications involved measures
for which there was no recognized international standards and many of these are
maximum residue limits for particular commodity and pesticide combinations.
Despite efforts to harmonize MRLS for pesticide, there has been variation in
standards. For e.g, developing countries must meet varied standards in order to gain
and maintain access to US, EU and Japanese markets for fish products33. While there
are some overlapping requirements, especially the increasing requirement of
HACCP, there remain differences in both regulatory and technical requirements.
Likewise there has been a significant differences among countries, not only in the
maximum permitted level for aflatoxin in cereals and nuts, but also the sampling
methods used to access conformity34.This lack of harmonization in both standards
and conformity assessment procedures can result in increased production and
transactions costs for developing country suppliers, necessitating duplicative testing
and reducing their ability to achieve economies of scale in certain production or SPS
management functions. 35
Similar case has been witnessed in case of poultry and poultry products where wide
range of product and process standards are required by the countries to minimize
the risk of salmonella and also in case of fresh fruits and vegetables imported into 30AgayoOgambi (2001) of Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry in his report on “The small
farmer on the way to the Global Market – The case of Kenya” 31Roberts et. al (1999) 32Roberts &Krissoff (2003) 33Henson and Mitullah (2003) 34Dohlman (2003) and Otsuki (2001)
35Jaffee& Henson ( 2004)
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the EU, there remain wide variations in the operative standards due to different
country approaches to surveillance and enforcement36.
2.4 SPS challenges for India
As in case of many developing countries, there has been a lot of instances where
market access for Indian agricultural exports in general and horticultural exports in
particular have been lost due to the existence of stringent SPS barriers in both
developed and developing country markets. Some of these instances include ban of
fisheries export from India by EU on SPS grounds in 199737, detentions and
rejections of Indian Marine exports on the grounds of use of antibiotics and bacterial
inhibitors, of meat products on grounds of foot and mouth disease and mad cow
disease, although the latter never occurred in India. Exports of spices, peanuts,
groundnuts, cereals, and various other processed food have long since been facing
difficulties on the grounds of presence of aflatoxin beyond the maximum residue
levels (MRLs) permitted by the EU. Despite India being one of the largest producers
of dairy products, these products are not allowed to be exported to the EU on SPS
grounds. Other Indian exports facing SPS problems in the EU include rice, tea, egg
products, red chillies, flowers, etc.
Australia, China and Japan did not allow Indian mangoes and grapes on the ground
that certain fruit flies are present. Ironically, China imposed a ban on grapes for a
species of fruit fly that does not exist in India. On the other hand, USDA allows entry
to a fruits and vegetables consignment only after detailed tests of the production
region.
36 Mathews et al (2003), Kasturi Das, (2006) in her study on “SPS‐related Market Access Barriers in the EU:
India Must Address its Concerns under the Proposed FTA” 37The EC directive no. 91/493, dated 22 July, 1991 that came into force from 1 January, 1993 made it
mandatory to comply with specified health conditions for the production and placement of these products
in the EU markets, and in August 1997, it banned fishery products from India.
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The Japanese stipulation of Vapor Heat Treatment (VHT) of fruits is yet another
instance of SPS becoming the key non‐tariff barrier. The technological upgrading to
comply with VHT protocol is a story of investment of time and money for at least
five years. This is in spite of the fact that success at the end is not assured. The
introduction of a regulation by EU prescribing very low levels of Octratoxin‐A (OTA)
in coffee; method and sensitivity of estimating pesticide residue in vegetables, fruits,
honey, etc. appear quite unreasonable. Another instance is the EU demand for the
residue monitoring plans for the previous years in association with that for
succeeding years. This stipulation will definitely deny access to the EU market for
Indian agro products. The labeling stipulation in the importing country language too
is a costly proposition keeping out Indian exporters. As a consequence of all these
measures, costs are imposed on the exporting country without any expected
commensurate return.
For poultry exports from India, as per the US importation rules, the importation of
poultry and poultry meat products from other countries can be on various grounds,
which favour domestic producers. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)
can suspend the eligibility of another country if it feels that an emerging sanitary
measure is to be implemented to address a hazard that is so severe that no product
can enter from a foreign establishment until a control is in place. In a second
situation, if the other country does not provide satisfactory documentation of
equivalent sanitary measure or if the FSIS audit reveals that the exporting country is
not implementing a public health sanitary measure in the manner that the FSIS
determined it to be equivalent; they can permanently stop eligibility of that country
for export. They can further take action against a particular country if they feel that
their products are adulterated or misbranded on on‐site audit or because of Port of
Entry re‐inspection, etc. These are SPS measures in different garbs, which are or can
be used for stopping exports from developing countries like India.
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India was de‐listed from the EU’s list of approved countries for import of egg
powder into EU because of its non‐submission of a Residue Monitoring Plan (RMP).
The issue of residue limits and the Residue Monitoring Plan itself has indeed been
used as an SPS measure very strongly by developed countries like EU as well as the
USA.
A second type of SPS measure employed by the developed countries is the granting
of equivalence to countries like India. EU and USDA have not made the effort to
grant equivalence to Indian standards for egg powder. A third type of SPS issue used
by some countries is certification of labs. The test certificates issued by Indian
laboratories are invariably not accepted in EU and other developed countries as
these labs are not accredited to the labs of developed countries, even though the
Indian labs follow the same testing methods and protocol for testing the samples.
Various other environmental and welfare issues adopted by the EU might hamper
the exports from India. This majorly includes legislation on nitrate levels in
Denmark, and the growing trends towards organic production and their impact on
poultry housing costs would bring in new issues in the shape of SPS measures. In
Germany, animal welfare is becoming an important issue. There is a general
agreement to limit the bird density of broilers while small cages are to be banned,
and these rules are going to be stricter in future. After the BSE crises of late 2000,
which damaged the reputation of EU’s food and farming industry, Salmonella
control by costly vaccine in laying hens has become a standard practice. In France,
new manure disposal regulations and the traditional method of producing animals,
slowly and at low density, will be an important animal welfare issue in the future. In
the Netherlands, high livestock density accompanied by tough regulations on
manure disposal has resulted in an eco‐tax, which has increased the cost of gas and
electricity there. They are trying to bring in tougher rules on ammonia emissions
and the current policy is to ban laying hen cages. There are directives to regulate
broiler bird densities and production. Similar examples can be given from Spain,
Hungary and Poland where these issues are gaining ground and will be used in the
future as SPS measures affecting developing countries like India.
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Similar was the case found for Indian peanut exporters who face situations where
they are compelled to make distress sales when foreign buyers are unable to accept
their products because of non‐compliance with some standards in the importer’s
market. For example, different testing procedures and conformity assessment
standards are required in different markets. Though each test costs Rs.6000, no one
has communicated to the exporters why most of these tests are needed. Another
interesting fact is that EU requires these tests only for imports from Egypt and India,
while imports from countries such as the USA and Argentina are exempted from
such tests.
The issue of aflatoxin presence in peanuts appears to be a major threat to peanut
exports. The EU Commission in Brussels has specified tolerance limits for aflatoxin
contamination in peanuts along with the appropriate testing methods. The proposed
levels are 10 ppb (5ppb B1) for raw material and 4 ppb (2ppb B1) for consumer
ready products. The new proposed sampling plan is similar to the Dutch Code, i.e.,
the analysis is to be done based on a 3‐test Dutch code methodology from a
randomly drawn 30 kgs sample. The new procedure is much more rigorous than
that currently in force, as if any of the 3 tests indicates that limits are exceeded, the
lot will be rejected.
Thus the implementation of the EU Commission's proposals would endanger the
export of Indian peanuts to EU member countries. The planned tolerance limits of 2
ppb aflatoxin B1 and 4 ppb total aflatoxin in finished products are so low that they
would almost certainly cause insurmountable difficulties to potential exporters to
EU countries and impose huge compliance costs. Producers within the EU itself
would also suffer unreasonably from these regulations. Whereas the WHO is
proposing a limit of 15 ppb for all aflatoxin, the EU Commission continues to insist
on an upper limit of 10 ppb for the raw nuts, despite the fact that the aflatoxin
content decreases during subsequent processing.
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Moreover, about 100 crores of herbal product exports from India, targeted for 1997‐
98, were severely affected as US planned to impose ban on imports of these
products if they did not confirm to HACCP38Indian seafood processors, in their bid
to remain competitive in the US market, are taking help from foreign consultants at
exorbitant cost to implement HACCP in their production units. However, one need
not focus on export markets alone. The dropsy‐death episode in the edible oil
market in 1998 is just an indication that Indian domestic industry has a lot of scope
for improvement in agro‐processing and food quality.
Spain is known to ban imports of squid and other marine products on the grounds of
heavy metal contamination due to the presence of mercury. However, this ban is
imposed mostly when there are excessive landings of these products by the Spanish
fishermen. The ban is removed when their landings are quite low.
In certain cases developed countries prohibit imports of agricultural and/or food
products from particular countries because it is judged that the risk to plant, animal
or human safety is unacceptably high. Thus, for example, India is not currently
approved to export fresh and frozen meat to the EU because of its current FMD
status.
Directive 92/46/EEC lays down sanitary standards for milk production within the
EU and Third Countries. This Directive requires that dairy products be
manufactured from milk derived from cows that have been kept on farms and which
have been mechanically milked. Given the predominance of hand milking in India,
this effectively precludes smallholder producers and much of India’s milk output
from exports to the EU39.
38EFP (1997).,CP (1997), ET( 1997).
39 World Bank study (2001)
54 | P a g e
A significant number of Indian consignments were rejected on the basis of multiple
reasons. For example, a consignment of Nishat Export (of Black Pepper) in
September 2002 was rejected on the grounds of (a) Filthy or adulteration, i.e. article
appears to consist of a filthy, putrid or decomposed substance or to be otherwise
not fit for food, and (b) Salmonella, i.e., the article appears to contain a poisonous
and deleterious substance. Large number of Indian consignments of all commodities
were rejected by USFDA on the basis of (a) Salmonella, (b) Filthy, (c) Not Listed, i.e.,
information regarding product was not provided, and (d) Unapproved, i.e,. a new
drug without an approved application.
A large number of Indian consignments of shrimps were rejected due to (a) Filthy,
(b) Salmonella and (c) Insanitary, i.e., an item prepared, packed or held under in‐
sanitary conditions. Out of 30 rejected Indian consignments of Mushroom, 28 of
them were rejected due to Pesticide, i.e., bears or contain a pesticide chemical which
is unsafe. Salmonella was found in coriander, cashew preparation, turmeric powder,
black pepper powder, fenugreek leaves and haldiram snacks.Pesticide residue was
found in roasted chickpeas and red chilli40.
One particular issue highlighted by a number of studies is access to information on
SPS requirements in developed countries41 When SPS standards are subject to
change on a relatively frequent basis and/or the costs of information are high,
developing country exporters may find it difficult to ensure their products are in
compliance prior to export. This can result in high rejection rates at developed
country borders.
Another issue highlighted is that despite efforts to harmonise MRLS for pesticide,
there has been variation in standards. For e.g, developing countries must meet
varied standards in order to gain and maintain access to US, EU and Japanese
markets 42 . While there are some overlapping requirements, especially the
40Sharma, B.Ashok ( 2005)
41Oduru and Yahya (1998); Kortbech‐Olesen (1997). 42Henson and Mitullah (2003)
55 | P a g e
increasing requirement of HACCP, there remain differences in both regulatory and
technical requirements. There has been a significant differences among countries,
not only in the maximum permitted level for but also the sampling methods used to
access conformity43.This lack of harmonization in both standards and conformity
assessment procedures can result in increased production and transactions costs for
developing country suppliers including India, necessitating duplicative testing and
reducing their ability to achieve economies of scale in certain production or SPS
management functions. 44
SPS standards can impede trade even when they are imposed on genuine health and
safety considerations because of additional compliance costs imposed on the foreign
competitor. The cost of compliance is the sum of all expenses, fixed and operational,
accrued to the public and private sector (farmers and enterprises involved in the
supply chain). These costs include those necessary for adjusting various
components of the supply chain, development of the necessary capacity in order to
conform to the SPS measures, the administrative cost of control, inspection, testing
and certification and the cost of delays in exportation (e.g. interest charges) caused
by the procedures necessary for the compliance.
In certain cases, the SPS standards laid down by developed countries are
incompatible with the normal methods of production in developing countries. In
this case, the costs of compliance include the cost of change in systems of production
and distribution may need to be changed in order to comply. This cost increases
when there is rapid change in SPS measures, regulations and notifications of new
regulations. There are numerous costs associated with attempting to deal with the
variability of standards across export markets and over time. The period allowed for
compliance with developed country SPS standards is an important factor influencing
compliance costs.
43Dohlman (2003) and Otsuki (2001)
44Jaffee& Henson ( 2004)
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It is not possible to quantify all costs of compliance, but some estimates are
available. According to UNCTAD estimates, the cost of initial investment for
compliance for tropical fruits alone amount to about 7% of total exports in the case
of Mozambique. For Guinea, the investment cost was also 7% of total food exports.
Srilanka faced SPS related quality problems in its produce, particularly species in
terms of presence of mould, high moisture level and aflatoxin. The quality related
problems were mainly due to cultural practices and technological limitations. The
cost of compliance with quality requirements in terms of cost of achieving disease
and pest free status to enable Argentina to export meat, fruits and vegetables was
reported to have been 82.7$ million over the period 1991‐96. Similarly cost of
upgrading hygienic standards in slaughter houses in Hungary over 1985‐91 was
estimated to be $ 41.2 million45.
Subsequent to the EU ban on Indian fisheries exports in 1997, the Seafood Exporters
Association of India claimed to have spent US$ 25 million on upgradation of their
facilities to meet the EU requirements. A concomitant problem is that of shifting
standards. The worst affected in the whole process are the small players, who are
often technically ill‐equipped and financially hard‐pressed to be able to comply with
stringent SPS requirements46.
The analysis of the poultry sector and calculates that to become HACCP compliant,
each unit had to invest around Rs. 1.5 to 2.00 crores, which is around 5 per cent of
the total investment cost. The new plants need an in‐built lab to check the validity of
compliance, and various inputs and skilled labor, all of which raise operating costs.
With no domestic market for egg powder, the existence of non‐operating units, low
capacity utilization of operational units and their higher operating costs adds up to a
huge burden on the industry47. Similarly, the cost of compliance for mango pulp
indicates that it is quite costly to get ISO certification. The cost may range between
45(Finger & Schuler, 1999). 46Kasturi Das, 2006 47Mehta et al, 2005,
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1.5‐2.5 lakhs for ISO audit. The surveillance audit is every six‐months and it costs Rs.
10,000 per man‐days.
Seafood Exporters Association of India claims to have spent US$25 million on
upgrading their facilities to meet the food safety regulations of the importing
countries. The EC standards are higher than the HACCP standards and compliance
requires going through the process of gaining EC approval of plants. MPEDA
indicates that Indian marine exporters have to incur large costs to the tune of Rs. 1‐
2 crores per unit for upgrading if they want to access the upper quality market. This
heavy cost burden involves both fixed and variable cost components. Interestingly
the overhead constituent of the variable cost component of compliance for a
medium size plant here is estimated to go up by a factor of 5.29. The compliance
cost for meeting the EC norms is 15‐40 per cent of value for new units, with the cost
being higher for existing units.
To comply with Japanese strict pesticide standards, frozen soybean exporters
invested in compliance in five major areas in their production (i) Technology: which
increased the investment in equipment by 25 percent (ii) Human resources: where
staff was increased by 33% and quality control and testing staff by 200% and farm
advisors by 15% (iii) Quality control and Testing: wherein cost increased by US$
820 – 11598. Number of samples tested daily increased 8 fold and filed sampling
plan shifted from random to 100%48.
However, there is another angle to the analysis stating that although the cost of
compliance is high, the cost of the lack of compliance is even higher in terms of the
loss of exports and its negative socioeconomic effects on the exporting country. This
has been illustrated through the example of China facing SPS barriers to trade in the
EU, Japan and the US affecting about 90% of China's exporters of foodstuffs and
animal by‐products and led to losses of $9 billion in 2002. The experience of China
48Manarungsan et al., 2005,
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also reveals that the failure to comply with SPS measures has led to more frequent
and closer inspections of future export products of a country by the importers49.
2.5 Conclusion
The extensive and in‐depth understanding from the existing literature on impact of
SPS measure on exports from developing countries including India highlights the
fact that despite the fact that there is widespread use of SPS by both developed and
developing countries, to date, the trade impacts of SPS measures and the cost
estimation have been most widely acknowledged in a developed country context.
Various commodity specific studies have been conducted50 to analyze the impact of
SPS barriers on commodities of export interest to developing countries. Many of
these commodities share the export interest with India thus raising probability and
alarm for Indian agricultural exporters to face similar barriers for exports from
India in future. However, amongst the studies conducted in the context of
developing countries, not many studies have been done regarding SPS challenges
faced by Indian horticultural exporters.
One of the most recent and remarkable study conducted on the subject of research
is the document of World Bank, 2007 on “India’s Emergent Horticultural Exports:
Addressing Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards and other challenges”. The study
divides the SPS issues in this said sector into four categories: (i) Absolute barriers or
binding constraints for accessing particular markets (ii) Temporary losses due to
rejection (iii) Higher recurrent transaction costs and (iv) defensive
commercialization. The study suggests three strategic options for developing
countries like India including compliance, voice and export diversification. The
49Mehdi Shafaeddin, 2001 50SPS measures are claimed to be an impediment to exports for example fish (ESCAP, 1996; Josupiet, 1997;
Cato, 1998); spices (UNCTAD/Commonwealth Secretariat, 1996); oilseeds, oils & fats (FAO, 1998); livestock
products (FAO, 1994; Colby, 1997; Petey& Johnson, 1995; Johnson, 1997) and horticultural products (Giles,
1997; Gilmour and Oxley, 1998; Kortbech‐Oleson, 1997; Sullivan et al, 1999).
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study specifically covers the SPS issues pertaining to bananas, pomegranate and
fresh mangoes and discusses alternatives for mitigating those including changes in
the crop production or procurement, conformity assessment etc.
Thus amongst the few studies conducted in Indian context, most of them have a
broader reference to the issues and cover select markets including USA & EU and
select products including poultry, marine products, mango pulp, peanuts and
mushrooms51, bananas, pomegranate and fresh mangoes. Thus this study becomes
unique since it not only creates an inventory of food safety standards across major
export markets for India, but also analyses the similar and distinctive feature across
various countries causing challenges of export growth by increasing the cost of
compliance. These costs of compliance have been estimated through a series of
primary surveys being conducted across different regions within the country and
also across various commodities to understand region/product specific issues.
In light of these SPS challenges being faced by India for past many years, a strict
food safety review mechanism becomes must to ensure the adherence of hygienic
and sanitary practices in the domestic food market of India which in turn would
ensure quality exports. In India multiple regulations for food have enacted at
different points of time to supplement each other. This incremental approach has
led to incoherence and inconsistency in the food sector regulatory scenario. The
food sector in India has been governed by a multiplicity of laws under different
ministries. At present, there are different laws which deal with food products and
standards. Some of these are prevention of Food Adulteration Act, Fruit Products
Order, Meat Food Products order, Vegetable Oil Products (Control Order, Milk and
Milk Products Order and various provisions of the Essential Commodities Act.
Multiplicity of laws creates confusion in the minds of consumers, traders,
manufacturers and investors. The multiplicity of ministries and administering
authorities at both the central and state level has resulted in a complex regulatory
system that is not well integrated adding an additional burden on the food industry.
51Mehta et. al, 2003
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In general, this regulatory system resulted in a lack of comprehensive, integrated
food law under single regulatory authority that ensures public health, safety, and
also specifies quality norms for meeting the globally recognized standards. Second,
most of these laws were formulated when the food processing industry was not so
well organized. Also, there was no concept of genetically modified food thus causing
a lot of confusion amongst the exporting community in the country. The study
therefore captures the responses of the FFV exporters across various regions in the
country on the expectations they carry from the Indian Government followed by the
perception mapping with responses from the policy makers and government
officials responsible for Food Safety Management System in the country.
A considerable body of literature now exists on many of the above mentioned
dimensions of food safety and trade. This literature ranges from the theoretical (e.g.,
Antle (2001), Bureau et al. (1998), Krisshoff et al. (2002) and WTO (2005) to policy
analysis (e.g., thukorla and Jayasuriya (2003) and OECD (1999) to empirical (Buzby
(2003), Otsuki et al. (2001) and Unnevehr (2000). However, empirical analysis of
the impact of food safety standards on exports from developing countries,
understanding the level of stringency of the standards and finally calculation of the
cost of compliance is relatively sparse.
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List of Tables
Table 2.2: NonTariff barriers on Fruits and vegetables in major importing countries
HS code Fruit/Vegetable Nontariff measure (NTM) Country NTM description 070000 Vegetables Certification China 1
Subsidy Korea 2070700 Cucumbers & Gherkins
Standards
New Zealand 3070800 Peas 3070990 Okra 3080000 Fruits Subsidy Korea 2080132 Cashew kernels brokens Documentation Saudi Arabia 4080300 Banana Subsidy Colombia 2080450 Mangoes
Standards Australia 5New Zealand 3
080600 Grapes Standards EC 6New Zealand 3Japan 5
080720 Papaya Standards New Zealand 3081090 Pomegranates 3
Source: NTM database, Ministry of Commerce, Government of India
1. Delay in finalization of protocol on phytosanitary measures and certification procedures 2. Direct export subsidies to lower marketing costs 3. High food safety standards and bio‐security issue 4. Legalized invoices & certificate of origin required 5. Import ban due to presence of fruit flies and stone weevil. 6. Non harmonized MRL in EC (Germany has more stringent standards)
Table 2.3 : Examples of major food safety events in major export destinations of FFV from India
Year Event Country 1987/88 Beef hormone scare Italy (EU) 1988 Poultry salmonella outbreak/scandal UK1989 Growth regulator (alar) scare for apples USA1993 E.coli outbreak in fast food hamburgers USA1996 Brain wasting disease linked to BSE UK1996/97 Microbiological contamination‐berries USA, Canada 1995‐97 Avian flu spreads to humans Hong Kong, Taiwan 1999 Dioxin in animal feed Belgium 2000 Large scale food poisoning‐dairy Japan2001 Contamination olive oil Spain
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List of Annexure
Annexure 2.1
Salient features of WTO SPS agreement
Commitments by member countries WTO SPS agreement reference
Establishment and operation of a single Contact Point for Information ("enquiry point").
Article 7 and Annex B.3.
Transparency: notification and access to documentation Articles 7 and Annex B, Also G/SPS/7
(a) identification of authority responsible for making notifications to the WTO and ensuring transparency obligations are met on an ongoing basis;
(a) Annex B.5.(b) and Annex B.10
(b) establish guidance or law requiring publication of proposed measures at an early stage for comment;
(b) Annex B.5(a).
(c) provision in law or administrative procedure to provide copies of proposed measures to WTO Members; and
(c) Annex B.5.(c).
(d) require in law or administrative procedure, a reasonable period of time for comment from Members and the public, and establishment of a process to take comments into account without discrimination.
(d) Annex B.5(d).
Necessity: measures are applied only to the extent necessary to protect human, animal or plant health.
Article 2.2
Regulations Based on Science: regulations governing animal and plant health and food safety shall be based on scientific evidence.
Articles 2.2, 3.3 and 5.2
Harmonization: to the extent possible, members shall follow international standards, guidelines, and recommendations in establishing SPS measures
Articles 3.1, 3.3 and 3.4.
Equivalence: members shall recognize different measures that achieve the same level of protection
Article 4.
Risk Assessment: developing scientific evidence and conducting risk assessments to ensure that measures are based on science and applied only to the extent necessary to protect health
Article 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3
Regional conditions: measures take into account the regional characteristics both of the areas from which products originate and the areas for which they are destined.
Article 6 and Annexes A.6 and A.7.
Non‐discrimination: measures do not arbitrarily or unjustifiably discriminate between different members or between domestic and foreign suppliers.
Article 2.3, and Annex C.1(a) and (d).
Control, inspection and approval procedures: ensure that procedures, including systems for approval of the use of additives or for establishing tolerances for contaminants in foods, beverages or feedstuffs comply with the Agreement
Article 8 and Annex C.
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Annexure 2.2
Number of SPS notifications for Fruits and vegetables (2005‐2011)
a. Vegetables
Developing
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Albania 21
Antigua and Barbuda 39
Argentina 9 1
Armenia 1 85
Azerbaijan 38
Bahrain 3 2 47 9
Barbados 36
Brazil 98 121 59 117 88 26 2
Bulgaria 34
Chile 39 50 105 27 3 15
China 16 38
Colombia 13 61 2 51
Costa Rica 25 4 16 14 31
Cuba 9
Dominician Republic 32 51 207 70
Ecuador 2 23 182
Egypt 9 14 15 32
El Salvador
Fiji 41
Gutaemala 18 15 14
Honduras 176 36
India 32 123 22 37 168 36
Indonesia 16 14
Israel 36
Kenya 5
Morocco 3
Nepal 38 28
Nicaragua 37
Norway 18 23
Oman 9 25 8
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Panama 1 36 14
Paraguay 38 1
Peru 116 38
Philippines 18 14 8 10 9
Romania 10
Sri Lanka 11 14
South Korea 69 72 74 30
St. Vincent and the Grenadnies
49
Turkey
The SCT of TPKM 51 35 76 39 36 128 14
Ukraine 10 13
United Arab Emirates
3 2
Viet Nam 48
Total 699 641 720 615 589 652 141
Developed 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Australia 1 9 2 4 2
Canada 35 28 7 58
EU 47 195 6 10 45
Japan 69 89 47 124 147 151 13
Netherlands 13
New Zeland 17 1 11 102 1 15
Singapore 39
Switzerland 6 37 23
Thailand 11 103 38 11 235 37
United States 405 399 106 166 30 28
Total 643 824 241 420 425 357 13
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b. Fruits
Developing
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Argentina 4 4 2
Armenia 73 2
Chile 59 43 95 34 1 19
China 2 35
Colombia 61 7 37
Costa Rica 1 15 4 14 33
Dominician Republic 35 34 204 60
Bahrain 2 2 41 7
Brazil 84 155 82 148 72 20 11
Ecuador 14 176
Egypt 14 14
El Salvador 14 14 1
Fiji 29
Gutaemala 29 15 22 22
Honduras 14 178
India 38 136 48 37 172 35
Indonesia 14 14
Israel 23
Nepal 36 28
Nicaragua 36 1 16
Norway 29 23
Oman 25 1
Panama 36 14
Peru 123 77 21 41 4
Philippines 15 1 14 10
Paraguay 36 4
South Africa 1 13
South Korea 39 70 73 1
Sri Lanka 24 3
United Arab Emirates
2
Viet Nam 48
Total 678 556 834 663 494 690 119
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Developed 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Australia 19 10 2 2 2 1
Canada 9 28 4 5 55
EU 25 206 1 9 45
Japan 72 83 53 190 143 167 20
Netherlands 14 1
New Zealand 9 6 8 75 1 15 2
Switzerland 23 176 23
Thailand 10 105 37 24 213 37
United States 489 402 108 219 32 15 2
Total 706 840 389 516 400 358 24
Source: WTO SPS notifications: www.wto.org& SPS database by Centre for WTO Studies, IIFT
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Annexure 2.3
WTO Dispute Settlement Cases for Fruits and vegetables (1995‐2010)
Year Respondent Complainant
Certain Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) 2010 USA Canada
Certain Country of Origin Labeling Requirements 2010 USA Mexico
Importation of fresh apple 2010 Australia New Zealand
Origin Labeling (COOL) Requirements 2010 USA Canada
Certain Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) 2008 USA Canada
Certain Country of Origin Labeling Requirements 2008 USA Mexico
Importation of fresh apple 2007 Australia New Zealand
Quarantine Regime for Imports 2007 Australia EU
Importation of Apples 2005 Japan USA
Preventing the Importation of Black Beans 2004 Mexico Nicaragua
Importation of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables 2003 EU Philippines
Preventing the Importation of Black Beans 2003 Mexico Nicaragua
Quarantine Regime for Imports 2003 Australia EU
Import Procedures for Fresh Fruit 2002 Turkey Ecuador
Import Restrictions under the EXIM Policy 2002‐07 2002 India EUImportation of Apples 2002 Japan USA
Importation of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables 2002 Australia Philippines
Importation of Fresh Pineapple 2002 Australia Philippines
Agriculture product 2001 Japan USA
Import Procedures for Fresh Fruit 2001 Turkey Ecuador
Testing and Inspection of Agricultural Products 1996 Korea, Republic of USA
Testing and Inspection of Agricultural Products 1995 Korea, Republic of USA
Source: www.wto.org