IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i6p1712-d148737.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Barriers to Sustainable Food Trade: China’s Exports Food Rejected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration 2011–2017

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaowei Wen

    (College of Economics & Management, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
    Loonguard Research Institute, Guangzhou 510000, China)

  • Zhaohui Yang

    (College of Economics & Management, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China)

  • Hui Dong

    (College of Economics & Management, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China)

  • Xinqiang Fan

    (College of Economics & Management, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China)

  • Yong Wang

    (College of Economics & Management, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China)

Abstract

Food export rejection can be a harmful barrier to sustainable international food trade. To understand China’s export food rejected by FDA (Food and Drug Administration) of the United States, we analyzed 4047 cases of rejection from February 2011 to July 2017. Although the number of rejected food exported from China to the United States has been declining, and the quality has been improving, there is still space for improvement. Of the 4047 cases of rejection, the Guangdong, Fujian and Shandong provinces were the top three with the largest number of rejected food (1253 (31%), 520 (12.8%), and 508 (12.6%), respectively) (being rejected mainly in New York and Los Angeles). The top four types of rejected food involved fruits and vegetables, fishery and seafood products, bakery products, grain and related processed products. More importantly, the major reasons for rejection can be attributed to problems in maintaining food safety, namely: (1) the food contained filth, decay, decomposition or other substances; (2), the food contained toxic and harmful substances (e.g., suspected melamine, chemical insecticides, or lead); and (3) the food contained agricultural and veterinary drugs. The results are of great implications for the United States to regulate the imported food from China, and for China to improve the quality and safety of export food.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaowei Wen & Zhaohui Yang & Hui Dong & Xinqiang Fan & Yong Wang, 2018. "Barriers to Sustainable Food Trade: China’s Exports Food Rejected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration 2011–2017," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-12, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:6:p:1712-:d:148737
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/1712/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/1712/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anders, Sven M. & Westra, Sabrina, 2012. "Barriers to Fishery Exports from Developing Countries: The Impact of U.S. FDA Food Safety Regulation," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126912, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Dongyong Zhang & Qiaoyun Ma & Stephen Morse, 2018. "Motives for Corporate Social Responsibility in Chinese Food Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-15, January.
    3. Jongwanich, Juthathip, 2009. "The impact of food safety standards on processed food exports from developing countries," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 447-457, October.
    4. Buzby, Jean C. & Unnevehr, Laurian J. & Roberts, Donna, 2008. "Food Safety and Imports: An Analysis of FDA Food-Related Import Refusal Reports," Economic Information Bulletin 58626, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    5. Clinton Beckford & Donovan Campbell & David Barker, 2011. "Sustainable Food Production Systems and Food Security: Economic and Environmental Imperatives in Yam Cultivation in Trelawny, Jamaica," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-21, March.
    6. Li Cui & Min Zhang & Kuo-Jui Wu & Ming-Lang Tseng, 2018. "Constructing a Hierarchical Agribusiness Framework in Chinese Belt and Road Initiatives under Uncertainty," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-17, January.
    7. Spencer Henson & Steven Jaffee, 2008. "Understanding Developing Country Strategic Responses to the Enhancement of Food Safety Standards," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 548-568, April.
    8. Mori, Romio & Nabeshima, Kaoru & Yamada, Nanae, 2013. "Food safety control system of Chinese eel exports and its challenges," IDE Discussion Papers 418, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhaohui Yang & Krishna P. Paudel & Xiaowei Wen & Sangluo Sun & Yong Wang, 2020. "Food Safety Risk Information-Seeking Intention of WeChat Users in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-15, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maertens, Miet & Swinnen, Johan, 2015. "Agricultural trade and development: A value chain perspective," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2015-04, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    2. Salo Coslovsky, 2013. "Enforcing Food Quality and Safety Standards in Brazil," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 649(1), pages 122-138, September.
    3. Muhammad ISHAQ & Qing PING & Zahoorul HAQ & Chongguang LI & Chen TONG, 2016. "Maximum residue limits and agrifood exports of China: choosing the best estimation technique," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 62(2), pages 78-92.
    4. Gale, Fred, 2021. "China's Refusals of Food Imports," Economic Research Report 327198, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    5. Jouanjean, Marie-Agnãˆs, 2012. "Standards, reputation, and trade: evidence from US horticultural import refusals," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 438-461, July.
    6. Fiankor, Dela-Dem Doe & Ehrich, Malte & Brümmer, Bernhard, 2016. "EU-African Regional Trade Agreements as a Development Tool to Reduce EU Border Rejections," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 244352, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    7. Olayinka Idowu Kareem, 2014. "The European Union Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and Africa’s Exports," RSCAS Working Papers 2014/98, European University Institute.
    8. Anders, Sven M. & Westra, Sabrina, 2012. "Barriers to Fishery Exports from Developing Countries: The Impact of U.S. FDA Food Safety Regulation," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126912, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Anirudh Shingal & Malte Ehrich & Liliana Foletti, 2021. "Re‐estimating the effect of heterogeneous standards on trade: Endogeneity matters," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 756-787, March.
    10. Kareem, Olayinka Idowu, 2022. "Fruit safety regulations in the transatlantic region: How are Africa’s exports faring with the regulations?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 886-902.
    11. Hoffmann, Vivian & Moser, Christine & Saak, Alexander, 2019. "Food safety in low and middle-income countries: The evidence through an economic lens," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 1-1.
    12. Melo, Oscar & Engler, Alejandra & Nahuehual, Laura & Cofre, Gabriela & Barrena, José, 2014. "Do Sanitary, Phytosanitary, and Quality-related Standards Affect International Trade? Evidence from Chilean Fruit Exports," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 350-359.
    13. Annalisa Zezza & Federica Demaria & Maria Rosaria Pupo d'Andrea & Jo Swinnen & Giulia Meloni & Senne Vandevelde & Alessandro Olper & Daniele Curzi & Valentina Raimondi & Sophie Drogue, 2018. "Research for AGRI Committee - Agricultural trade: assessing reciprocity of standards," Working Papers hal-02787948, HAL.
    14. Md. Kazi Touhid & Mahmuda Akter & Fahad Bin Islam Khan, 2023. "From Victimless Crime to Habitual Victim: An Empirical Study on Food Victimization," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(10), pages 1729-1750, October.
    15. Zhang, Lu & Cui, Li & Chen, Lujie & Dai, Jing & Jin, Ziyi & Wu, Hao, 2023. "A hybrid approach to explore the critical criteria of online supply chain finance to improve supply chain performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    16. Anjani Kumar & Ashok K. Mishra & Sunil Saroj & Vinay K. Sonkar & Ganesh Thapa & Pramod K. Joshi, 2020. "Food safety measures and food security of smallholder dairy farmers: Empirical evidence from Bihar, India," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(3), pages 363-384, June.
    17. World Bank, 2020. "Sudan Agriculture Value Chain Analysis," World Bank Publications - Reports 34103, The World Bank Group.
    18. Shekar Bose & Amina Marhoon Rashid Al Naabi & Houcine Boughanmi & Jaynab Begum Yousuf, 2019. "Domestic Ban Versus Border Rejections: A Case of Oman’s Fish Exports to the EU," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(1), pages 21582440188, January.
    19. Adrián Rabadán & Ángela Triguero, 2021. "Influence of food safety standards on trade: Evidence from the pistachio sector," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(3), pages 489-514, July.
    20. Miet Maertens & Liesbeth Colen & Johan F. M. Swinnen, 2011. "Globalisation and poverty in Senegal: a worst case scenario?," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 38(1), pages 31-54, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:6:p:1712-:d:148737. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.