The uneasy marriage of private standards and public policies for sustainable commodity governance
研究了巴西大豆、印尼棕榈油和越南鲶鱼三个案例中，私人可持续标准与国内公共政策如何从竞争走向不情愿的互补，挑战了目标一致驱动互补的观点。
Abstract Global value chains for commodity agriculture have been the target of a broad array of sustainability governance efforts led by both public and private actors. In this paper, we ask: how do public policies and private standards interact in commodity‐exporting countries? To answer this question, we examine the interactions between voluntary sustainability standards and domestic public policies in three cases: soybean farming in Brazil, palm oil production in Indonesia, and pangasius aquaculture in Vietnam. We find that in each case, public and private governance interactions go through a period of competition before ending in a state of reluctant complementarity. We argue that this reluctant complementarity results from the need of governments in commodity‐producing countries to maintain export markets for their goods. This finding challenges the idea that complementarity between public and private sustainable commodity governance is driven by goal alignment and tempers expectations that standards and certifications can mitigate deforestation.