| Summary/Abstract |
Pandemic outbreaks disrupt agricultural trade. The possible strengthening of import
barriers to products from countries at the epicenter of a pandemic by their trade
partners could aggravate this situation. This paper examines the responses of the US
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), import refusals, and subsequent trade impacts
on the agricultural exports from the developing countries that were the epicenters of
four pandemics in the past two decades. Using monthly data for the period 2002–2020,
we fi nd increased import refusals and amplifi ed trade-impeding impacts on agricultural
exports during pandemic outbreaks. Increased import refusals and the amplifi cation of
the trade-impeding effect of import refusals were especially large when China was the
epicenter. We further examine possible differences in these results across products and
FDA inspection methods, and the main conclusions remain robust. This paper offers
a better understanding of the economic outcomes of pandemic outbreaks and provides
policy suggestions for China.
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