Food import refusals: Evidence from the European Union

The increased global trade in seafood coupled with growing concerns over food safety has put developed countries under pressure to increase regulatory stringency over imports. Seafood is of particular interest in that it is a growth area of food trade and holds great potential for developing countries, which export the majority of the product. Developing countries export most of the world's supply of seafood. However, they often have problems conforming to standards, such as HACCP, set by developed countries. On several occasions, imports to the EU have violated regulations and incurred bans of seafood products from the offending exporting countries. The EU tracks import refusals using the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), which is legally based in European Commission Regulation No. 178/2002. The RASFF reports several types of market notifications, as well as border rejections, which comprised 46% of all notifications in 2008.