Poisoned Grapes, Mad Cow, and Protectionism

Abstract

This paper studies two episodes where an exporting industry saw its sales plummet after importing countries banned their products to protect their citizens' health. The first case is the poisoned grapes crisis involving Chile and the United States in 1989. The second is the mad cows dispute between the United Kingdom and the European Union in 1996. These case studies motivate a new definition of protectionist measure' which is applied to argue the European Union's ban on British beef exports did not constitute a protectionist measure, while the US ban on Chilean fruit possibly classifies as such a measure.