The Hidden Borders of Global Trade: Divergent Regulatory Personalities in the US and EU Food Safety Systems (2008–2025)

While the World Trade Organization (WTO) mandates scientific harmonization via the CodexAlimentarius, this study reveals that enforcement at the border remains fragmented andsovereign. We present a comparative longitudinal analysis of 102,451 regulatory border actions recorded by the US FDA and EU RASFF over a seventeen-year period (2008–2025).By harmonizing rejection data across trade sectors, we identify a structural divergence in“Regulatory Personality.” The results reveal a pronounced sectoral inversion: EU enforcement isconcentrated in nuts and seeds, driven by laboratory-confirmed mycotoxins (36.6% of rejections),whereas FDA enforcement is heavily oriented toward visual and process-related violations,with 76.3% of refusals executed without physical laboratory analysis (an “Optical Gap”).Geopolitically, the analysis documents a “Neighborhood Bias” affecting Mexico and Turkey,alongside a “Dual-Risk” profile for China, where US actions target anthropogenic chemicalswhile EU actions target natural toxins. Crucially, Indian exporters face a “Compliance Paradox,”encountering biologically oriented enforcement in the US and chemically oriented enforcementin the EU. These findings demonstrate that the “One World, One Standard” ideal has beensuperseded by mutually exclusive compliance regimes, forcing the Global South to maintainparallel supply chains.