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Fukushima: U.S. Response and the Short-Term Impact on U.S.-Japan Trade in Fish and Seafood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2019

Peter Vardon Open the ORCID record for Peter Vardon [Opens in a new window] ,
Aliya Sassi ,
Yuqing Zheng  and
Dileep Birur
Peter Vardon
Affiliation:
Food and Drug Administration (Retired), DHHS, 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD20993, USA
Aliya Sassi
Affiliation:
Food and Drug Administration, DHHS, 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD20993, USA
Yuqing Zheng*
Affiliation:
University of Kentucky, 313 Barnhart Building, 1398 Nicholasville Road, Lexington, KY40546, USA, e-mail: yuqing.zheng@uky.edu
Dileep Birur
Affiliation:
Montclair State University, 1 Normal Ave, Montclair, NJ07043, USA
*
*e-mail: yuqing.zheng@uky.edu
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Abstract

The U.S. regulatory response to the import of potentially contaminated food from Japan following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility meltdown has not been closely examined. The incident caused global concern about the safety of foods imported from Japan. U.S. scientists and policymakers conducted an initial evaluation of the potential health risks, analyzed information and data from foreign governments and international organizations, adopted an import alert, and conducted extensive monitoring. They did not detect radionuclides in, adopt a ban on, or advise consumers to alter their consumption of foods from Japan. Using a modified Global Simulation Model, National Marine Fisheries Service monthly seafood import data and United Nations trade data, we performed a comprehensive retrospective benefit-cost analysis of U.S. actions on U.S.-Japan trade in fish and seafood. We estimate that U.S. regulatory policy preserved approximately $150 million in annual consumer surplus from the continued import of Japanese fish and seafood (at a cost of less than $1 million for import sampling), while finding no additional exposure to harmful radionuclides. The lesson of our analysis is that investment in regulatory infrastructure has tangible economic benefits, and that retrospective benefit-cost analysis can be a useful framework for evaluating catastrophe risk-related policy strategies.

Keywords

Fukushimafood policyJapanretrospective analysistradeseafood.F14F18Q17H12.
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , Fall 2019 , pp. 351 - 378
Copyright
© Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis, 2019

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Footnotes

Any views, findings, or opinions expressed in this paper are solely those of our own and do not reflect any official position of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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