Assessing the Relationship between Quality Competitiveness and the Safety of Domestic Agricultural Products in JapanRyo Sakamoto Journal of Rural Economics, 2014, vol. 86, issue 2, 11 Abstract: In Japan, it is widely believed that domestic agricultural products have higher quality because they have a higher level of safety, both objectively and subjectively, than imported products. However, no research examines whether safety attributes can establish the facts regarding the quality of domestic products. Thus, this article assesses the relationship between quality competitiveness and safety in a bilateral trade framework under the WTO/SPS agreement. The result of theoretical analysis indicates that when an importing country changes its safety regulations based on scientific evidence, it is necessary to ensure the same level of subjective safety between imported and domestic products in order to maximize its economic welfare. In fact, the tendency of differences in subjective safety levels among countries to decrease can be confirmed by experiences accumulated in U.S.-Japan bilateral issues raised over beef BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy). This implies that safety attributes will not be critical factors in the maintenance of quality competitiveness in Japan's agriculture in the future. Keywords: Risk; and; Uncertainty (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aesjre:242337 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Journal of Rural Economics from Agricultural Economics Society of Japan Contact information at EDIRC. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
Örebro University School of Business.