Evaluating the Trade Restrictiveness of Phytosanitary Measures on U.S. Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Imports

Empirically assessing sanitary and phytosanitary regulations has proven difficult because most data sources indicate whether a regulation exists but provide no information on the type or importance of the respective measure. In this article, we construct a novel database of U.S. phytosanitary measures and match these to 47 fresh fruit and vegetable product imports from 89 exporting countries over the period 1996–2008. A product‐line gravity equation that accounts for zero trade flows is developed to investigate the trade impact of different pest‐mitigation measures. While the results suggest that phytosanitary treatments generally reduce trade, the actual restrictiveness of these measures diminishes dramatically as exporters accumulate experience, and it vanishes when exporters reach a certain threshold. The results have important policy implications considering the number of empirical studies that find a negative impact of non‐tariff measures on trade.