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歐美研究
A Preliminary Analysis of the Import Safety
Regulatory Framework under the United States
Food Safety Modernization Act
Ching-Fu Lin
Institute of Law for Science and Technology, National Tsing Hua University
No. 101, Sec. 2, Kuang-Fu Rd., Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
E-mail:
chingfulin@mx.nthu.edu.twAbstract
Together with the globalization of economic activities and the
expansion of food supply chains, food safety has emerged as a chal-
lenging global governance issue which transcends borders and im-
pacts public health in individual nation-states. This challenge is
shared by both developed and developing countries, including the
United States, where regulatory flaws and food safety outbreaks are
commonplace. The Food Safety Modernization Act was recently in-
troduced to address the regulatory inadequacies in the United States,
and aims to expand administrative authorities in regulating food
products as well as to monitor the entire supply chain based on a
“preventive” regulatory philosophy. The new law also mandates a
series of reforms in the regulatory system governing import food
safety, with the general objective of ensuring the same level of safety
and law compliance between domestic and imported products. This
article judiciously examines the three major axes of regulatory re-
form under the Food Safety Modernization Act, with a particular
analytical focus on the import safety rules, including the Foreign
Supplier Verification Program, Voluntary Qualified Importer Pro-
gram, and Third Party Audit and Certification Systems. Based on the
analysis, the article concludes by offering an in-depth evaluation on
the challenges and opportunities arising from the innovative institu-
tional designs of the new law.
Key Words
:
food safety, US FDA Food Safety Modernization Act,
import regulation