| Food-safety concerns have a highly visible impact on current U.S.-China agricultural trade. Initial concerns over melamine in imported pet and animal feed have spread to other products, and traditional made-in-China “cheap” goods are drawing great safety attention from U.S. customers and regulators. At the same time, China has raised concerns over U.S. products as diverse as orange pulp, health supplements, and pistachio nuts. Ultimately, the impact of food-safety regulation will be determined not only by regulatory content but also by administrative and structural characteristics of supply chains. This paper uses fresh apple markets in China as an example to illustrate the complexity of managing interactions among these three factors. |
