Regulations and standards have become an increasingly important factor affecting the capacity of producers to participate in global markets. Directly and indirectly, they not only determine the terms of market entry but also affect the extent to which different producers are able to position themselves in global value chains in a manner which provides for socially and environmentally sustainable income growth. Standards compliance can enhance producer capabilities and assist in meeting many objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But it may also involve trade-offs between different SDGs. Standards compliance is simultaneously inclusive (facilitating the participation of low- and middle-income country producers in global production and spreading incomes more widely globally) and exclusive (barring small producers from market access and displacing unskilled labour from supply chains). This paper explores the policy measures that will best lead to the most positive outcomes as standards diffuse through global value chains.
Written by Raphael Kaplinsky, Mike Morris