Diffusion of international food safety standards: Developing Country experiences.

Abstract

This paper asks whether international standards for food safety and quality affect domestic policies, and if so, how. The paper is organized as follows. The first section describes the Codex Alimentarius Commission and its role in international food safety and quality standards. The second section outlines the theoretical model for thinking about diffusion of these standards and the different ways they might influence domestic policies. The next three sections briefly describe how Argentina and the Dominican Republic relate to the Codex Commission, assess the level of influence of international standards in those countries, and outline some factors that contribute to the influence of standards. The paper concludes with some thoughts about the mechanisms by which diffusion of standards occurs.

Citation

Manchester, UK, CRC Working Paper, No. 58, 21 pp.

Diffusion of international food safety standards: Developing Country experiences.

Published 1 January 2004