No abstract

The SPS Agreement and the related WTO dispute settlement mechanism are an important first step in strengthening the global trade architecture, bringing in greater transparency and orderly conditions to world food trade. However, implementation of the new trade rules has turned out to be a more complex task than the traditional market access issues handled by the WTO. Several factors, including inadequate financial and technical resources, have constrained devel‐oping countries from becoming effective participants in the implementation process, and there is widespread suspicion that SPS regulations are being used as hidden protectionist devices by developed countries. However, despite all the problems, some developing countries have been quite successful in penetrating developed country food markets; they have done so by accepting the consumer preferences and standards in quality‐sensitive high‐income markets and implementing domestic supply‐side measures. While making full use of available international assistance initiatives, developing countries should view the task of complying with SPS standards not just as a barrier but also as an opportunity to upgrade quality standards and market sophistication in the food export sector.

No abstract

Protagonists in the 1980s' debate on equity and growth in Sri Lanka claimed to show that economic liberalization could deliver growth without jeopardizing equity, and the main lesson that they drew from the Sri Lankan experience - that welfarism should be abandoned - helped to reinforce neoliberal policy reforms of the Washington institutions. This paper shows that their conclusions were heavily dependent on the time frame employed and on the concept of welfare and inequality that was utilized, and that they seriously underestimated the importance of state welfare expenditure in buying social peace. Perceived relative inequality is seen to have increased remarkably, perceptions magnifying objective changes in distribution that coincided with the withdrawal of public support systems.