Trade Effects Of Sanitary And Phytosanitory Standards and Technical Barriers To Trade On Coffee Exports from Malawi

Market access for agricultural products from developing and least developed countries is hampered by numerous trade barriers. Some of these barriers appear in the form of standards and technical regulations that have to be followed by both exporters and importers. While some of these standards and regulations are purposely crafted to restrict certain imports, others are genuine measures serving various purposes. These barriers to trade are commonly referred to as technical barriers to trade. There is, however, a distinction between the general category of technical barriers to trade, for which rules have been set out in the WTO Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement; and a special category of technical barriers to trade, namely sanitary and phytosanitary measures, for which rules are provided in the WTO Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement.

This paper explores the extent to which Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures (SPS) as well as Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) affect access of agricultural products to markets in the developed countries. SPS and TBTs may constitute formidable barriers to trade. The trade effects of SPS and TBTs is one factor that has arguably contributed to declining coffee exports from Malawi to developed countries from around 7,000 tons in the early „90s to just around 1,700 tons currently. In this paper, the author especially highlights the effects of SPS and TBTs on coffee exports from Malawi to the European Union (EU)-27, one of the most important trading partners for Malawi.