The effects of sanitary and phytosanitary barriers on the international trade of apples from France and Chile[Les effets des barrières SPS sur le commerce international de pommes en provenance de la France et du Chili]

In the attempt to distinguish whether or not sanitary and phytosanitary measures are an effective barrier on international trade of apples, firstly, we build an indicator able to capture differences between various international standards and, secondly, we estimate a gravity model to understand whether or not tightening or easing sanitary and phytosanitary regulations may reallocate trade flows between trading partners. This paper aims at studying compliance costs which may sometimes be excessively expensive for firms that want to export to a foreign marked and, in order to do so, must comply with the rules established in the market in which they want to sell their products. The absence of compliance with foreign SPS implies the "rejection at the borders" for that "unsafe" products and firms' loss of competitiveness. Compliance costs might have a crucial role in determining the amount and the direction of trade of apples. Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures, in fact, might hamper international trade of apples among trade partners. We apply our analysis to two major actors in international trade of apples: France and Chile. These countries have been chosen because even if they have similar market shares they differ in terms of markets of destination, seasonality, local conditions etc.