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001 AAI3415787
005 20111103085905.5
008 111103s2010 ||||||||||||||||| ||eng d
020 9781124102108
035 (UMI)AAI3415787
040 UMI|cUMI
100 1 Johnecheck, Wendy A
245 10 Political, economic and international legal aspects of the
US country of origin labeling legislation
300 203 p
500 Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 71-
07, Section: A, page: 2638
500 Adviser: Patrick Webb
502 Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, Gerald J. and Dorothy R.
Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, 2010
520 This dissertation examines various aspects of the United
States legislation mandating that retailers provide
consumers with information on the national origin of their
food. Essay I provides an overview of the statutory and
regulatory authority governing origin requirements for
food products in the U.S. Essay II uses a two-country,
comparative static partial equilibrium model to simulate
the ex-ante market and welfare outcomes of US country-of-
origin labeling for a significant market---the US-Mexico
fresh tomato trade. Mexican tomato exports decline in both
price and quantity, with corresponding increases for US
production and prices in all scenarios where consumers
show a relative preference for US tomatoes. Mexican trade
losses using low to mid-range consumer preference
assumptions are between 16 and 32 percent of the value of
Mexican tomato exports to the US, and 1 to 3 percent of
the total value of agricultural produce exports, partially
negating the market access gains resulting from NAFTA and
WTO commitments. Essay III uses the recently initiated
United States - Certain Country of Origin Labeling
Requirements WTO dispute as a case study to examine the
nature of the relationship between consumer information
labeling regulatory measures and the applicable WTO
provisions disciplining domestic regulation. For each
relevant provision, the paper discusses a range of
possible legal tests that may be applied to the US COOL
measure. This set of judicial tests is also used to
explore the impact of various legal outcomes on the
balance of power between domestic and international
regulatory authority. The case study reveals that WTO law
does not categorically prohibit genuinely motivated
consumer information labeling measures. The treatment of
measures motivated by both consumer and producer interests
(such as the US-COOL regulation), however, remains
unclear. Further, given that many of the relevant legal
provisions are largely untested, the legal outcome for
both partially and genuinely motivated consumer choice
measures is far from certain, and is equally likely to
produce a finding of non-compliance with WTO obligations.
In light of this uncertainty, the paper concludes by
elucidating various issues critical to whether consumer
information labeling policies are judged compliant with
WTO obligations
590 School code: 1546
650 4 Law
650 4 Economics, Agricultural
650 4 Political Science, International Law and Relations
690 0398
690 0503
690 0616
710 2 Tufts University, Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School
of Nutrition Science and Policy
773 0 |tDissertation Abstracts International|g71-07A
856 40 |uhttp://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/
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