Import Safety: Regulatory Governance in the Global Economy

About the Book

On World Food Day in October 2008, former president Bill Clinton finally accepted decade-old criticism directed at his administration's pursuit of free-trade deals with little regard for food safety, child labor, or workers' rights. "We all blew it, including me when I was president. We blew it. We were wrong to believe that food was like some other product in international trade." Clinton's public admission came at a time when consumers in the United States were hearing unsettling stories about contaminated food, toys, and medical products from China, and the first real calls were being made for more regulation of imported products. Import Safety comes at a moment when public interest is engaged with the subject and the government is receptive to the idea of consumer protections that were not instituted when many of the Clinton era's free-trade pacts were drafted.
Written by leading scholars and analysts, the chapters in Import Safety provide background and policy guidance on improving consumer safety in imported food, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and toys and other products aimed at children. Together, they consider whether policymakers should approach import safety issues through better funding of traditional interventions-such as regulatory oversight and product liability-or whether this problem poses a different kind of governance challenge, requiring wholly new methods.

Table of Contents:

Preface
PART I: PERSPECTIVES ON THE PROBLEM
1. Consumer Protection in an Era of Globalization
-Cary Coglianese, Adam M. Finkel, and David Zaring
2. The Other China Trade Deficit: Export Safety Problems and Responses
-Jacques deLisle
3. Parochialism About the Safety of Imports
-Jonathan Baron
PART II: INTERNATIONAL TRADE INSTITUTIONS
4. Import Safety Regulation and International Trade
-Tracey Epps and Michael J. Trebilcock
5. The Politics of Food Safety in the Age of Global Trade: The Codex Alimentarius Commission in the SPS Agreement of the WTO
-Tim BÜthe
6. Import Safety Rules and Generic Drug Markets
-Kevin Outterson
PART III: TOWARD SMARTER REGULATION
7. Forecasting Consumer Safety Violations and Violators
-Richard Berk
8. Risk-Based Regulation for Import Safety
-Lorna Zach and Vicki Bier
9. Solving the Problem of Scale: The European Approach to Import Safety and Security Concerns
-Alberto Alemanno
PART IV: LEVERAGING THE PRIVATE SECTOR
10. Importers as Regulators: Product Safety in a Globalized World
-Kenneth A. Bamberger and Andrew T. Guzman
11. Bonded Import Safety Warranties
-Tom Baker
12. Private Import Safety Regulation and Transnational New Governance
-Errol Meidinger
PART V: THE WAY FORWARD
13. Delegated Governance: Consumer Safety in the Global Marketplace
-David Zaring and Cary Coglianese
List of Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments

About the Author :
Cary Coglianese is Deputy Dean of Penn Law, Edward B. Shils Professor of Law, Professor of Political Science, and Director of the Penn Program on Regulation at the University of Pennsylvania. Adam M. Finkel is Fellow and Executive Director of the Penn Program on Regulation at the University of Pennsylvania. David Zaring, also with the Penn Program on Regulation, is Assistant Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Visit the Penn Program on Regulation Import Safety web site for contributor bios and other details.

Review :
"Import Safety provides a timely and comprehensive overview of the challenges faced by both governments and domestic and foreign firms in protecting consumers from unsafe imported goods. It not only describes and documents the magnitude of this challenge but also offers a number of creative legal and administrative solutions to address it." (David Vogel, Solomon P. Lee Chair in Business Ethics, University of California, Berkeley) "An important book. I am impressed by the way it tackles the food safety problems created by globalization and explains why our current regulatory systems are failing to protect the public. Best, it offers highly innovative ways to solve food safety problems and should be welcomed by policy makers the world over. Anyone who cares about the safety of food and other imports needs to read this book." (Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, New York University) "This timely volume provides a broad perspective on the complexities and problems involved in controlling the quality of imported products in world trade. . . . A valuable resource for anyone interested in this topic, which touches all of our lives." (Choice)