Research Activities
Research Projects
Private standards/certifications and international trade: Practices of soft law and perspective from economics(2020_2_40_020)
Outline
Rapidly evolving global value chains require deep economic integration, which can be accomplished only through direct negotiations over domestic policy and the harmonization or mutual recognition of international standards. Governments have attempted to fulfill this goal through preferential trade agreements. Recently, private standards and certifications, which cover broad fields such as product safety, environment, labor, and human rights, have been widely adopted, functioning as de facto standards or “soft laws.” This research project investigates the extent to which private standards and certifications affect the social welfare of developed and developing countries in trade, through a comparison with traditional standard policies such as mutual recognition and harmonization.
Period
April 2020 - March 2023
Leader of the Research Project
Publications
Published by IDE