Abstract
Agricultural exporters tend to enter into contracts containing quality or standard clauses. These provisions may refer to either international public standards or standards set by private bodies. The second are usually more dynamic and thereby may respond to the consumers’ demand more quickly. However, high participation costs may exclude a large share of producers from private standards schemes. The state may pick certain socially desirable private standards and evolve them to the public regulation, as it was the case of the rules on organic farming in the EU. The government may introduce aid to encourage all interested actors to participate in the scheme, although the policy space left for the government to do so is limited by the WTO disciplines for domestic support.