European Food Safety Regulation and Developing Countries’ Regulatory Problems and Possibilities

A large number of developing countries are highly dependent upon exports of agricultural products and for many of these countries the European Union is the primary export market. For decades, however, the EU’s market for agricultural products was protected by high tariff barriers. These barriers were vigorously criticized; not least due to their adverse effects on developing countries’ exports. Today the tariff barriers have been lowered, but in their place a regime of stringent food safety requirements (‘sanitary and phytosanitary’ or ‘SPS’ requirements) has taken shape (Ramaswamy and Viswanathan, 2007, 124).