Import Restrictions and Food‐Safety Regulations: Insight from Brazil

Abstract

Since the 1980s, developing countries have been implementing radical reforms to increase their competitiveness in the global economy. While the increased export orientation has had positive effects on economic growth in many countries, it has also left them susceptible to external attempts to influence domestic regulatory standards. In this article, we explore a specific case that illustrates how domestic actors cope with such external pressures for regulatory reforms. We examine how domestic policymakers received the European Union's import ban on natural honey produced in Brazil and the actions they took in an attempt to have the ban lifted. The import ban triggered the creation of a new institution, the Honey Chamber, which helped to coordinate the interests of different sectoral actors, thereby helping to overcome institutional fragmentation. Once established, the new institution facilitated the revision of the existing regulatory standards and paved the way for the more‐rigorous monitoring of residues in honey.

Proportionate and disproportionate policy responses to climate change: core concepts and empirical applications

“…As noted above, focusing events are likely to result in more policy over-reactions, since policy-makers are more likely to find themselves under pressure to demonstrate immediate and 'visible' action (De Francesco & Maggetti, 2016;Tosun & de Moraes Marcondes, 2016). To illustrate this line of reasoning, the United Kingdom serves as an apt example.…”

“…Policy over-reaction is a particularly desirable strategy when the focusing events arrive at a time when public attention is already high and is then pushed to an even higher level (see, e.g. De Francesco & Maggetti, 2016;Tosun & de Moraes Marcondes, 2016). Deliberately over-reacting may thus appear as an effective policy move -at least for a limited period of time -if it insulates policy-makers from short term electoral losses.…”

“…Thus policy-makers could adopt standards which still incur some costs to their domestic economy, but which at the same time create higher costs for foreign competitors. Likewise, policy-makers could also over-react and adopt very strict regulatory standards to overcome trade restrictions imposed on their industries (Tosun & de Moraes Marcondes, 2016).…”