Abstract
Public and private standards are two different governance systems for the global agro-food system. The public standards are set by so called three sisters, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the World Organisation for Animal Health and International Plant Protection Convention. Private standards are set by a wide variety of private organisations. This chapter asks the question of where the different sets of standards gain their legitimacy from and focus on participation as a way to create legitimacy. It finds that the three international organisations provide more or less transparent procedure to set their standards but a democratically control or election of the experts in the drafting committees is missing. Additionally favours the institutional setup of the organisations some interests, especially less and least developed countries and small-scale producers have difficulties to get their voice heard. So there is room for improvement. Concerning private voluntary standards the findings are also that improvement is needed. Due to the variety of different voluntary private standards a single finding apart from the fact, that also these kind of standards are not set by democratically elected and controlled bodies. The standard-setting bodies differ widely between single corporations and multi-stakeholder-initiatives. The private voluntary standards system provides options that can create meaningful participation, in particular because it can tackle issues that the WTO does not regulate such as environmental and social aspects of production and allows procedures to bring all relevant stakeholders together. However, the voluntary private system has also some flaws, mainly that it depends on the willingness of powerful corporations to improve the participation in the system. In the end, I argue that both governance systems can complement each other, but much improvement is needed in both systems to come to well-functioning solution.
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Notes
- 1.
Anderson (2010), p. 3011.
- 2.
Anderson et al. (2010), p. 3.
- 3.
Anderson (2010), p. 3011 ff.
- 4.
Anderson et al. (2010), p. xviii.
- 5.
Schleifer (2017), p. 688.
- 6.
Busch (2011), p. 55 ff.
- 7.
For trends in market concentration, see for example: Busch and Bain (2004), p. 329 ff.
- 8.
Busch (2011), p. 56 f.
- 9.
Busch (2011), p. 58.
- 10.
Lee (2006), p. 8, available at https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/5494707/private-food-standards-and-their-impacts-on-developing-countries, accessed 31.October.2020.
- 11.
Ibid.
- 12.
GlobalGAP, ‘Tesco Nurture Module’ Globalgap.org, https://www.globalgap.org/uk_en/for-producers/globalg.a.p.-add-on/nurture-module/, accessed 19 September 2020.
- 13.
Busch (2011), p. 58, 60.
- 14.
Henson and Humphrey (2010), p. 1633.
- 15.
Quality Assurance International, https://www.qai-inc.com/, accessed 19 September 2020.
- 16.
Busch (2011), p. 61f.
- 17.
Busch (2011), p. 58.
- 18.
Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Preamble, available at https://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/marrakesh_decl_e.pdf.
- 19.
Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Annex A No.1, available at https://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/15sps_02_e.htm.
- 20.
Pauwelyn (1999), p. 644.
- 21.
Wouters and Geraets (2012), p. 483 ff; Hemler (2016), p. 250 ff; Bohanes and Sandford (2008), para 125, available at http://www.ssrn.com/link/SIEL-Inaugural-Conference.html, accessed 8 October 2020.
- 22.
Tamiotti (2007), paragraph 18.
- 23.
Panel Report, EC – Sardines, WT/DS231/R, paragraph 7.113, available at https://docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/SS/directdoc.aspx?filename=Q:/WT/DS/231R.pdf&Open=True, accessed 31 October 2020.
- 24.
Sifonios (2018), p. 277ff.
- 25.
Schroder (2011), p. 71 ff.
- 26.
Sifonios (2018), p. 277 ff.
- 27.
Sifonios (2018), p. 298 ff.
- 28.
Grossmann (2003), p. 90 ff.
- 29.
WTO, ‘Labour standards: consensus, coherence and controversy’ (Wto.org, 17 December 2018), https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/bey5_e.htm, accessed 15 June 2019.
- 30.
Trebilcock et al. (2013), p. 656 ff.
- 31.
See ‘Review of the Operation and Implementation of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures’, 11 March, G/SPS/12 paragraph 18 available at https://docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/SS/directdoc.aspx?filename=Q:/G/SPS/12.pdf&Open=True accessed 31 October 2020; ‘Review of the Operation and Implementation of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures’, 11 July2005, G/SPS/36, paragraph 42 available at https://docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/SS/directdoc.aspx?filename=Q:/G/SPS/36.pdf&Open=True accessed 31 October 2020. Are these available online?
- 32.
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- 33.
WTO, ‘World Trade Report 2012’, 14.
- 34.
Henson and Humphrey (2010), p. 1636.
- 35.
Henson and Humphrey (2010), p. 1637 f.
- 36.
Henson and Humphrey (2010), p. 1638.
- 37.
Shaw et al. (2006), p. 1050.
- 38.
Henson and Humphrey (2010), p. 1639.
- 39.
Henson and Humphrey (2010), p. 1638 f.
- 40.
Henson and Humphrey (2012), p. 105.
- 41.
Henson and Humphrey (2012), p. 109. The mentioned Guide contained general requirements for third-party operating a product certification system.
- 42.
Henson and Humphrey (2009), p. 9. https://www.fsis.usda.gov/shared/PDF/Codex_al32_09Dbe.pdf. accessed 31 October 2020.
- 43.
Steven Jaffee, Spencer Henson, Luz Diaz Rios, ‘Making the Grade: Smallholder Farmers, Emerging Standards, and Development Assistance Programs in Africa. A Research Program Synthesis’, World Bank Report No. 62324-AFR, 2011, 27. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/2823/623240SR0White0W110Making0the0Grade.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y accessed 31 October 2020.
- 44.
World Bank, ‘Horticultural Producers and Supermarket Development In Indonesia’, Report No. 38543-ID, 2007, vii. Same as above.
- 45.
FAO, ‘The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets – Trade and food security: achieving a better balance between national priorities and the collective good’, 2015, 32 http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5090e.pdf accessed 31 October 2020.
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Thomas (2014), p. 733.
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Schouten and Bitzer (2015), p. 120, 176.
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Bodansky (1999), p. 93, 599.
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Risse (2006), p. 183 ff.
- 50.
Subsection c) of Art. 25 ICCPR, which guarantees equal access to public services, can be seen as non-discrimination clause on a special issue. provide full reference to the document, as this does not seem complete. It is complete—it is an International Human Rights Treaty: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CCPR.aspx.
- 51.
CESCR, ‘General Comment No. 15’, paragraph 48. provide full reference to the document, as this does not seem complete Usually these documents are cited that way in human rights literature, they are all available at https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/TBSearch.aspx?Lang=en&TreatyID=9&DocTypeID=11.
- 52.
CESCR, ‘General Comment No. 18’, para 42.
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CESCR, ‘General Comment No. 23’, para 25.
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CESCR, ‘General Comment No. 23’, para 21 and para 59.
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Grant and Keohane (2005), p. 31 ff.
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Annex A No. 3 a) of the SPS Agreement.
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Article 2 of the CAC Procedural Manual, 24th edition, 2015, available at… http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5079e.pdf accessed 31 October 2020.
- 59.
FAO, Codex Alimentarius http://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/about-codex/observers/observers/about/en/, accessed 3 January 2020.
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Section 2 of the CAK Procedural Manual, 24th edition, 2015, available at … http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5079e.pdf.
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Scott (2009), p. 246.
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Post (2005), p. 170.
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Thiermann and Babcock (2005), p. 747 ff.
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- 71.
Scott (2009), p. 249.
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- 73.
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- 74.
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Henson and Humphrey (2010), p. 1631.
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Smythe (2009), p. 98.
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- 78.
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Stumpf, S. (2021). Participation in Standard Setting for the Agro-food Industry. In: Sieber-Gasser, C., Ghibellini, A. (eds) Democracy and Globalization. Economic Analysis of Law in European Legal Scholarship, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69154-7_10
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