Market access & food standards insights from the implementation of US sanitary and phytosanitary regulation[Accès au marché et standards alimentaires : enseignements de la mise en œuvre de la réglementation sanitaire et phytosanitaire américaine]

This PhD thesis contributes to this debate over standards as barriers or catalysts to trade and provides evidence of the impact of standards on developing countries' capacity to gain and sustain markets access in food produce. Because of the complex and very much heterogeneous nature of NTMs, various methodologies have been developed. The analysis in this PhD adopts a direct approach to the measurement of food related standards using two unique data sets. By disentangling productivity from quality sorting in horticultural exports, the first paper investigates the impact of food safety standards and consumers' preference for quality on developing countries' capacity to export high care and differentiated agricultural products (HCAs). Using an extended version of the previous dataset, the second paper shows that reputation is an important factor in the enforcement of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures. The third paper analyzes the ins and outs of U. S. Phytosanitary regulation. The empirical analysis shows that the regulatory framework of phytosanitary regulation is captured by interest groups. Moreover, controlling for other factors, the analysis shows that lower-middle income and low income countries are respectively less likely to have access to U. S. Domestic market and less likely to take advantage of open trade lines.