农药最大残留限量标准对农产品质量提升的影响——基于欧盟生鲜水果进口的实证分析

The Impact of Maximum Pesticide Residue Limits on the Quality Upgrading of Agro-foods:An Empirical Study on EU Fruit Imports

基于前沿距离模型和嵌套Logit模型,使用2009-2016年欧盟生鲜水果进口细分数据,考察了欧盟农药最大残留限量(MRLs)标准对进口水果质量提升的影响。结果表明,欧盟MRLs标准比联合国食品法典委员会制定的MRLs标准更为严格。欧盟MRLs标准不仅明显抑制了其进口生鲜水果的质量提升速度,而且对质量提升的影响是非线性的。即欧盟MRLs标准促进了高质量(距离质量前沿更近)产品的质量提升速度,延缓了低质量(距离质量前沿更远)产品的质量提升速度。此外,欧盟MRLs标准对低收入水平国家的水果质量提升的阻碍作用比中高收入水平国家更大。这意味着,欧盟MRLs标准已经成为一种非关税贸易壁垒,不仅整体削弱低收入水平国家农产品的国际竞争力,尤其对低收入水平国家的中小规模生产者更为不利。

Based on the nested logit model and distance to the frontier model,this paper uses data of fresh fruit imports in EU from 2009 to 2016 to investigate the impact of EU maximum pesticide residue limits( MRLs) on the quality upgrading of imported fresh fruits. Results show that the EU MRLs on fruits are stricter than those of Codex Alimentarius Commission. The EU MRLs not only significantly inhibits the speed of quality improvement of fresh fruit imports,but also mitigate the rate of quality upgrading of imported fruits on average.Furthermore,the effects of the EU MRLs on quality upgrading of imported fruits are non-monotonic. Facing the EU MRLs,the producers close to the world quality frontier are more likely to upgrade their qualities,while those producers distant from the frontier are less likely to upgrade. Besides,the negative effects of the EU MRLs on quality upgrading of imported fruits are more significant in low-income and middle-income countries than that in high-income countries.It implies that the EU MRLs have evolved into a new non-tariff measures( NTM),which has affected the competitiveness of agro-food producers from low-income countries,especially for those small-scale farms.