Ratcheting Up Protective Regulations in the Shadow of the WTO: Food Safety Standard-Setting in India

• In Event: 288 - Regular Session. Globalization

Abstract

How does the World Trade Organization (WTO) shape contests among civil society organizations, transnational firms, and states over domestic regulations that protect human health, such as food safety standards? The WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS Agreement) created a regulatory framework that would allow states to establish food safety standards without unnecessarily restricting trade. Yet, few attempts have been made to explore how these rules shape national policy-making processes, and particularly the ability of civil society organizations to ratchet up protective regulations. This requires exploring the discursive dimension of institutional power at the WTO. Through a study of standard-setting for pesticide residues in soft drinks in India, I argue that WTO rules are at once legal obligations backed by the coercive threat of economic sanctions and discursive standards for what constitutes “appropriate regulatory practice.” As discursive standards, the rules shape the rationalities and strategies of diverse actors in domestic regulatory contests. These standards of appropriate regulatory practice are used instrumentally by transnational firms to undermine the influence of civil society in policy-making but can also offer opportunities for civil society organizations to contest and even enlarge the boundaries of appropriate regulatory practice.

Author

• Amy Adams Quark, College of William & Mary