In this opinion piece, we highlight that trade barriers established during COVID-19 as “fire lines” to prevent cross-border transmission of the pandemic could become “fault lines” that demolish the global food system. We review restrictions on both international agricultural exports and imports, especially unilateral border controls such as import refusals and alerts, in previous epidemics and arising with two novel features amid COVID-19. Institutional causes to pervasive trade barriers in epidemics that are embedded in the WHO-WTO coordination scheme have been discussed. In the meantime, discussions on potential economic outcomes and policy recommendations have been provided.

中文翻译：

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火线是断层线：COVID-19 大流行期间贸易壁垒增加，进一步破坏了全球粮食系统

在这篇评论文章中，我们强调在 COVID-19 期间建立的贸易壁垒作为“火线”以防止大流行的跨境传播可能成为破坏全球粮食系统的“断层线”。我们审查了对国际农产品出口和进口的限制，特别是单边边境管制，如进口拒绝和警报，在以前的流行病中以及在 COVID-19 期间出现的两个新特征。已经讨论了 WHO-WTO 协调计划中普遍存在的流行病贸易壁垒的制度原因。与此同时，就潜在的经济成果和政策建议进行了讨论。