The effect of maximum residue limit standards on China's agri-food exports: A health perspective

This paper investigates the impact of maximum residue limit (MRL) standards of 2692 chemical substances regulated by 44 importing countries on China's agri-food exports, disaggregated at HS 8-digit product level over 2005-2021. We find that MRL standards for health-threatening chemical substances facilitate China's exports of agri-food products, while low-hazard MRLs impede trade. Furthermore, stricter MRL standards for health-threatening substances reduce the probability of exporting (extensive margin) while generating larger export values conditional on exporting (intensive margin). We also identify that the adjustments of fixed and variable compliance costs resulting from changes in health-threatening and low-hazard MRLs contribute to the heterogeneous responses on the extensive and intensive margins of exports.