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- Convenor:
-
Stefano Ponte
(Copenhagen Business School)
- Stream:
- History, politics and urban studies
- Location:
- Khalili Lecture Theatre
- Start time:
- 12 September, 2006 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
none
Long Abstract:
Globalisation has set in motion four inter-related processes in the past two decades, with profound consequences for African countries. These are, first, a marginalization of African countries in international trade, despite the rapid expansion in the volume and spread of international trade. Second, the increasingly critical role of global firms (both as retailers and producers) in organising complex networks of globally dispersed suppliers through value chains. Third, changes in the traditional forms of governance in international trade with an increasing significance of private actors - from corporate interests to non-governmental organisations - working alongside public bodies at the national and international level. And, finally, the growing importance in international trade of compliance with global standards. These include standards on product and processes especially with regards to health and safety, quality assurance, environment, labour and social concerns. In an era of formal trade liberalisation, standards point to the new rules of trade.
Standards are replacing tariffs as the main trade barriers facing African agro-food exports. They derive from public and private sources. Public standards are set at the international, regional and national levels. Private standards are set by firms, industry organisations, and by NGOs. The panel focuses upon new standards that are emerging from both sources, and the challenges they present to developing country producers and exporters. Specifically, it examines: (1) the setting and implementation of new social, environmental and food safety standards for agro-food products – with a focus on public and private standards in the EU; and (2) the levels of compliance with new standards by producers and exporters in developing countries, costs and benefits, and pre-conditions and consequences (including distributional ones) of compliance and non-compliance.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Stefano Ponte (Copenhagen Business School)
Paper long abstract:
Market-based environmental and social standards and labels have become key features in the trade of agro-food products originating from Africa in the last 15 years. International organizations, government agencies, industry associations, and NGOs behind the formulation of these standards were initially defensive of efforts aimed at critically examining their effects in different settings. They are now making efforts to be more inclusive and to reflect upon past experiences to improve the content, monitoring and management of their standards. However, little movement so far has taken place in acknowledging that standards are developed and applied in specific political economies, within complex power relations, and in extremely diverse local conditions and politics.
This paper examines the political economy of ecolabelling through the analysis of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification of one of the industrial fisheries of South Africa: hake. It places emphasis on the motivations behind the adoption of MSC certification, on verification procedures that follow certification, and on local settings. MSC certification, far from being a neutral and equal instrument yielding better conservation for humanity, is achieved in the context of global and local competition, special interest battles, and local politics. In South Africa, although couched in a discourse of conservation, MSC was a key instrument used to justify positions in debates that had race relations and possible re-dressing of past wrongs under apartheid as the main issues at stake.
James MacGregor (IIED)
Paper long abstract:
Private voluntary standards harbour potential to negatively affect exports from developing countries and hence directly impact on poverty. This paper reports on research on the fresh produce trade linking UK consumers and small-scale producers in East and Southern Africa, and specifically on the range of financial and non-financial costs and benefits that smallholders face in complying with these standards. Analysis will cover smallholders still participating in supply chains to the UK supermarkets and those who have "dropped out" from these chains and now cater to expanding regional and international markets that do not (yet) require such stringent standards - such as UK wholesale and non-UK EU supermarkets. The paper will address the following issues: will the trend towards higher standards mean that smallholders will ultimately disappear from the UK and EU consumers' footprint? what best-practice procurement models exist that ensure the role of smallholders? how can donor assistance be directed to obtain the greatest poverty reduction impact?
Peter Gibbon (Danish Institute for International Studies)
Paper long abstract:
Meeting new public and private standards is a key requirement for African countries to access the more remunerative segments of global food markets. However, costs of conformity are typically high and the rewards of market access are uncertain. This paper presents a picture of Uganda's rapidly expanding certified organic export sector and reports the results of recent case studies of two exporter-organised outgrower schemes. It attempts to establish the "real" level of entry barriers, the most important components of these barriers, returns to different actors and determinants of these returns. It also considers the long-term economic sustainability of different sorts of enterprise in the sector.