Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Disclaimer
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 An introduction to domestic regulation and GATS
- Part I Impediments to services trade, regulatory theory and principles
- Part II Legal perspectives on WTO principles and domestic regulations
- Part III Case studies
- 8 Legal services in the United States
- 9 Telecommunications reform in China: fostering competition through state intervention
- 10 Information communications technology: the Mauritian experience of regulation and reform
- 11 Regulation of postal services in a changing market environment: lessons from Australia and elsewhere
- 12 Mobile money services provision in East Africa: the Ugandan experience
- 13 Financial services liberalization and regulation in Japan: implications for future negotiation on market access and domestic regulations
- 14 Domestic regulations in Malaysia’s higher education sector
- 15 Domestic regulations and India’s trade in health services: a study of hospital and telemedicine services
- 16 Operating integrated logistics services in a fragmented regulatory environment: what is the cost?
- 17 Domestic regulation of retail food distribution services in Israel: the missing link between food prices and social protest
- 18 Regulatory impact analysis: addressing the trade and regulatory nexus
- Part IV Concluding remarks
- Index
- References
17 - Domestic regulation of retail food distribution services in Israel: the missing link between food prices and social protest
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Disclaimer
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 An introduction to domestic regulation and GATS
- Part I Impediments to services trade, regulatory theory and principles
- Part II Legal perspectives on WTO principles and domestic regulations
- Part III Case studies
- 8 Legal services in the United States
- 9 Telecommunications reform in China: fostering competition through state intervention
- 10 Information communications technology: the Mauritian experience of regulation and reform
- 11 Regulation of postal services in a changing market environment: lessons from Australia and elsewhere
- 12 Mobile money services provision in East Africa: the Ugandan experience
- 13 Financial services liberalization and regulation in Japan: implications for future negotiation on market access and domestic regulations
- 14 Domestic regulations in Malaysia’s higher education sector
- 15 Domestic regulations and India’s trade in health services: a study of hospital and telemedicine services
- 16 Operating integrated logistics services in a fragmented regulatory environment: what is the cost?
- 17 Domestic regulation of retail food distribution services in Israel: the missing link between food prices and social protest
- 18 Regulatory impact analysis: addressing the trade and regulatory nexus
- Part IV Concluding remarks
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
This chapter provides a case study tracing the impact of domestic regulation on market structure in the retail distribution services sector and its ultimate effects on consumer food prices. Taking Israel, a small and relatively liberalized Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economy, as an example, our research investigates whether market concentration and the absence of international competition can be attributed to domestic regulation. We place this discussion in the context of recent consumer-led social protest against the rising cost of food in Israel.
Distribution services in general, and retail distribution in particular, is at the nexus of economic activity, connecting producers, wholesale traders and importers of goods, on one hand, with end-consumers, on the other. By some accounts, retail distribution services constitute one-third of global consumer services (Nordås et al. 2008: 8), with retail food services comprising a significant part of it. This is a field in which a wide range of measures that could be considered as domestic regulation in the terms of General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) Article VI may apply as a matter of course, such as business opening hours and zoning requirements (Pilat 1997; Boylaud and Nicoletti 2001). Thus, even in instances where specific market access and national treatment commitments or general transparency and most favoured nation (MFN) obligations are not violated, domestic regulation may have adverse effects on international and local competition and optimal trade patterns, making it an especially interesting services sector.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- WTO Domestic Regulation and Services TradePutting Principles into Practice, pp. 289 - 306Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014
References
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