El Impacto de la Legislocion Comunitaria ent el Desarrollo de la Cadena Comercial de Productos Ecologicos Chilenos

Empirical studies have underlined the importance of technical trade barriers in the agricultural sector. For organic food products, national differences in standards and certifications systems could act as a major non-tariff barrier for exporting countries, particularly developing countries, which could eventually fail benefit from the increasing marketing opportunities for organic productsin developed countries. This paper presents results of a study on the impact of EU organic certification legislation on Chile organic sector as an illustration of the problem a developing country faces when trading internationally. The paper analyses the recent regulatory reform in Chile aimed to help domestic organic producers to overcome international trade barriers and reach a “playing fieldlevel”. However, technical problems and a slow uptake by the private sector have hampered the potential success of these widereaching legislative measures. As a result, Chilean organic products enter the EU market through the “back door” (i.e. special