Measuring the cost of compliance: the case of French apples

Sanitary and technical regulations can be market facilitators by decreasing market asymmetries and thus improving welfare, but they can also impede trade. The effects that regulations have on trade depend essentially on the complexity stemming from the application of the regulations abroad. Quantifying costs of compliance is becoming a more and more demanding task due to the proliferation and the increasing complexity of technical and sanitary regulations and standards. This increasing demand of public regulations can lead to a loss of competitiveness in countries that were major exporters, causing a redistribution of the leadership in certain sectors. The aim of this paper is (i) to identify the procedures and treatment for use in plant protection incurred by French exporters when shipping their apples;(ii) to propose a measure of the size and scope of these procedures