Rival Regulatory Regimes in International Environmental Politics: The Case of Biosafety

Abstract

The literature on international regulatory regimes has highlighted how rival standards can create different points of convergence. Scholarly attention has also focused on how the European Union (EU) and the United States (USA) attempt to ‘export’ their environmental standards internationally. Here, we explore the effectiveness of these attempts by means of third states' decisions to ratify the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity, a multilateral environmental agreement regulating genetically modified organisms that is promoted by the EU but opposed by the USA. Our findings confirm that both rivals are able to influence the ratification decision of states, but they also suggest that these effects may have different origins. Countries relying more heavily on US markets for food exports tend to be less likely to ratify the Cartagena Protocol, while countries that have applied for EU membership are more likely to ratify the protocol.

Transnational Bureaucratic Politics: An Institutional Rivalry Perspective on Eu Network Governance

“…However, research on Europeanization and diffusion beyond the EU is mostly limited to processes of policy transfer, institutional emulation and models for regional integration (Jetschke and Murray ; Lenz ). Empirical analyses of regulatory competition and interdependence between transnational regulatory orders are now emerging (Birchfield ; Kissack ; Schulze and Tosun ) . Furthermore, the impact and effectiveness of EU‐orchestrated transnational regulatory networks and institutions need to be assessed vis‐à‐vis other transnational legal and regulatory orders.…”

“…An example of the second type is transnational regulatory interdependence regarding competition law, where jurisdictions are called to embrace an international treaty based on US or EU norms and practices (Raustiala ). Another example are environmental multilateral agreements, as analysed in Schulze and Tosun's () contribution to this symposium. Moreover, EU agencies interact with pre‐existing international organizations aimed at solving transnational issues and governing global markets.…”

“…A measure of the effectiveness of the EU as a global standard setter is the ratification of international agreements that overlap with its own governance style on environmental and trade issues. Schulze and Tosun () emphasize that there is now an institutional marketplace composed of poles of influence, i.e. the economic superpowers, which are able to set international standards for all other countries.…”

“…Diffusion approaches typically adopt a macro perspective and understate actor-level explanations. Nonetheless, as shown by Schulze and Tosun (2016) in this symposium, institutional rivalry matters in diffusion studies, in two ways. On the one hand, rivalry exists at the international level, with respect to standards inspired by different regulatory styles and politico-administrative traditions.…”

Global Public Policy and Transnational Administration

“…Yet policy transfer and diffusion studies also note that adoption, implementation and/or compliance vary due to national traits (Stone ). Moreover, Kai Schulze and Jale Tosun () also note the regulatory competition that has emerged in policy transfer with the US and the EU both seeking to ‘export’ rival regimes to third states.…”