Cross-Sector Review of Drivers and Available 3Rs Approaches for Acute Systemic Toxicity Testing

Acute systemic toxicity studies are carried out in many sectors in which synthetic chemicals are manufactured or used and are among the most criticized of all toxicology tests on both scientific and ethical grounds. A review of the drivers for acute toxicity testing within the pharmaceutical industry led to a paradigm shift whereby in vivo acute toxicity data are no longer routinely required in advance of human clinical trials. Based on this experience, the following review was undertaken to identify (1) regulatory and scientific drivers for acute toxicity testing in other industrial sectors, (2) activities aimed at replacing, reducing, or refining the use of animals, and (3) recommendations for future work in this area

Obesity and the food system transformation in Latin America

The Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region faces a major diet-related health problem accompanied by enormous economic and social costs. The shifts in diet are profound: major shifts in intake of less-healthful low-nutrient-density foods and sugary beverages, changes in away-from-home eating and snacking and rapid shifts towards very high levels of overweight and obesity among all ages along with, in some countries, high burdens of stunting. Diet changes have occurred in parallel to, and in two-way causality with, changes in the broad food system – the set of supply chains from farms, through midstream segments of processing, wholesale and logistics, to downstream segments of retail and food service (restaurants and fast food chains). An essential contribution of this piece is to marry and integrate the nutrition transition literature with the literature on the economics of food system transformation. These two literatures and debates have been to date largely ‘two ships passing in the night’. This review documents in-depth the recent history of rapid growth and transformation of that broad food system in LAC, with the rapid rise of supermarkets, large processors, fast food chains and food logistics firms. The transformation is the story of a ‘double-edged sword’, showing its links to various negative diet side trends, e.g. the rise of consumption of fast food and highly processed food, as well as in parallel, to various positive trends, e.g. the reduction of the cost of food, de-seasonalization, increase of convenience of food preparation reducing women's time associated with that and increase of availability of some nutritious foods like meat and dairy. We view the transformation of the food system, as well as certain aspects of diet change linked to long-run changes in employment and demographics (e.g. the quest for convenience), as broad parameters that will endure for the next decades without truly major regulatory and fiscal changes. We then focus in on what are the steps that are being and can be taken to curb the negative effects on diet of these changes. We show that countries in LAC are already among the global leaders in initiating demand-related solutions via taxation and marketing controls. But we also show that this is only a small step forward. To shift LAC's food supply towards prices that incentivize consumption of healthier diets and demand away from the less healthy component is not simple and will not happen immediately. We must be cognizant that ultimately, food industry firms must be incentivized to market the components of healthy diets. This will primarily need to be via selective taxes and subsidies, marketing controls, as well as food quality regulations, consumer education and, in the medium term, consumers' desires to combine healthier foods with their ongoing quest for convenience in the face of busy lives. In the end, the food industry in LAC will orient itself towards profitable solutions, ie those demanded by the broad mass of consumers

The Economic Effects of Significant U.S. Import Restraints: Fifth Update 2007

[Exerpt] The U.S. International Trade Commissions latest update in this series of reports presents results on the economic effects on the U.S. economy of removing significant U.S. import restraints in manufacturing, agricultural products, and services. The report estimates changes in U.S. welfare, output, employment, and trade that could result from the elimination of U.S. tariff-rate quotas on agricultural products, quantitative restrictions applied to textiles and apparel, and duties for sectors with high tariffs. The study also examines the economic implications of restrictions affecting maritime trade and trucking, and it analyzes the implications of liberalization for U.S. workers. The base year for the study is 2005, the year for which the most recent data are available on the structure of the U.S. economy. The report is the fifth update in a series of reports to the U.S. Trade Representative. The initial report was submitted in November 1993, the first update was submitted in December 1995, the second update in May 1999, the third update in June 2002, and the fourth update in June 2004.The_economic_effects_of_significant.pdf: 637 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

A new look at the impact of U.S. import barriers on corporate profit expectations

F13, G14,

EFFECT OF MULTI-FIBER ARRANGEMENT TRADE RESTRICTIONS ON TEXTILE INDUSTRY PROFIT MARGINS

This article tests the anti-competitive effect of trade restrictions under the Multi-Fiber Arrangement in the U.S. textile industry. The modeling approach differs from that of traditional empirical studies. That is, it allows for non-competitive behavior by domestic firms and therefore permits estimating the effect of trade policy on domestic firms' conduct, market power, and profit margins. The model is estimated for several selected product categories of the U.S. textile industry. Empirical results indicate that trade restrictions enabled domestic producers to behave less competitively and raise their profit margins. The empirical evidence is significant in the man-made fiber sub-sectors. The anti-competitive effect, however, tended to taper off over time, suggesting that higher profits might have induced new entry and hence boosted competition. Copyright 1997 Western Economic Association International.