Investigating the impact of health and environmental standards on exports : the case of Egyptian agro-food exports to the eu

Abstract EN

This study aims at assessing the impact of EU Health and Environment (H and E) standards on Egyptian agro-food exports.

Two objectives were addressed, namely : understanding the extent to which agro-food exports to the EU are subject to H and E trade barriers and investigating the impact of H and E standards imposed by the EU on export performance of Egyptian firms in the agro-food sector.

The results of the survey were analyzed descriptively and quantitatively.

The study showed that a considerable percentage of agro-food exports to the EU are subject to SPS restrictions in terms of the frequency ratio of detentions and the percentage of the value of total agro-food exports to the EU.

Nevertheless, the conventional general argument that H and E standards impede trade and are consequently a disguised form of NTBs, cannot be simply accepted.

The findings of the econometric analysis showed that H and E standards exert a significant positive effect on export performance of firms.

Both awareness of firms in terms of complying with H and E standards and costs of compliance as well as importing market restrictions related to H and E standards had a significant positive impact on the export performance of the firms in the sample.

Nevertheless, many domestic and external institutional constraints exist that deprive exporters from achieving optimum benefits from compliance.