Abstract - Quest for Global Competitiveness - Universidad de Puerto ...

standards that have a negative impact on exports can alter trade flows such thatdeveloping countries are coerced into becoming more engaged in south-south trade ascompared to north-south trade. This is premised on the assumption that developingcountries, because of differences in risk tolerance, and gaps in the implementation ofCODEX guidelines, have food safety regimes that do not reflect growing health risks asmay be the case in developed countries. Further, given the global economic geography,developing countries are more likely to have distance-related cost advantages withother developing countries, as is the case in CARICOM.This can be seen as a strategy to cope with food safety measures of developedcountries that are too costly to comply with in the short run. This is particularly, the casewhere there is a free trade arrangement among developing countries that provides bothunfettered access to an enlarged market and distance-related cost advantages, as theintensification of exports to CARICOM reveals. For Guyana, therefore, given the impactof heterogeneous food safety regimes, distance-related cost advantages and the impactof preferential access, the CARICOM market is an appealing option for expandingexports of non-traditional products in the short run. However, sustainable and profitabletrade over the long run necessitates developing the flexibility for effective compliancewith the standards of important developed- country trading partners where demandpatterns and price trends remain favourable.7. REFERENCESAchterbosch, T & van Tongeren, F, 2002, „Food safety measures and developingcountries: literature overview,‟ date viewed July 5, 2007,http://www.lei.dlo.nl/uk/content/research/FoodSafetyDCs.pdfBaldwin, R, 2000, „Regulatory Protectionism, Developing Nations, and a Two-Tier WorldTrade System,‟ Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, date viewed23