| The overarching goal of this study was to analyze the impact of Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (MCOOL) and Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) on United States (U.S.) imports of beef products from leading trade partners. The dataset (value of annual beef imports (in pounds) of U.S. from major trading partners, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of U.S. and partner countries, population of U.S. and partner countries, exchange rate of both trading partners, language, common border, square difference of income, RTA membership and MCOOL dummy) covered 18 leading trade partners spanning from 1989 to 2013. This dataset helped us to analyze the impact of MCOOL and RTA. The analysis employed the gravity model of trade. Controlling for other variables that affect the volume of trade, the estimated coefficients of MCOOL was consistently negative in all the Models. This negative effect implied that following the implementation of mandatory labeling, there has been a significant decrease in the imports of beef into the U.S. from trading partners. RTA has been shown to increase trade among partner countries and is consistent with other body of literature. |
