Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 07/2009

European Food Safety Regulation and the Developing Countries: Regulatory problems and possibilities

Morten Broberg

June 2009

Danish Institute for International Studies

Abstract

Many developing countries are highly dependent upon exports of agricultural products, and for many of these countries the European Community is the primary export market. Increasingly, however, the developing country exporters are met with stringent food safety law requirements that constitute a virtual barrier to entering the European Community market. Indeed, food safety requirements have been ranked as one of the foremost factors affecting exports of agricultural and food products from developing countries. This working paper identifies those food safety law requirements that cause the most problems for developing countries exporters of food products and it points to possible ways of overcoming them.