The product/process distinction first refers to the isolation of information pertaining to the consumer good as such (its proximate attributes) from that pertaining to the means by which it is made (its peripheral attributes). The proximate attributes of a consumer good refer namely to its price, quality, and safety, whereas peripheral attributes point to the environmental effects entailed by its production, the working conditions under which it comes into being, as well as the treatment of animals involved in its production chain, among other familiar examples. In a more general way, one may refer to the first type as 'product information', and to the second as 'process information', in line with a distinction brought under controversial light by the WTO in 1991.
In some specialized circles, the product/process distinction is a method used by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to determine whether or not a complaint filed by an importing nation is valid and warrants trade barriers against the exporting nation. Under WTO rules, an importing nation can lodge a complaint with the WTO that the exporting nation uses methods for obtaining or producing the good in question that an importing nation finds to be immoral or unethical. If the independent World Trade Organization Advisory Board, made up of a panel of international law and trade experts, finds that the importing nation has a legitimate complaint, enforces said ethical standards for domestic production, and isn't trying to merely skirt its free trade obligations, the Board will rule that trade barriers are justified. However, despite what World Trade Organization officials have said, in practice the World Trade Organization finds these complaints illegitimate the vast majority of the time.
For example, if the European Union (EU) wants to ban imports of cosmetics that were tested on laboratory animals on ethical grounds, it can file a complaint with the World Trade Organization and, in theory, would be allowed to enact trade barriers provided that the EU bans its own domestic cosmetic producers from testing on laboratory animals. In these cases, however, the World Trade Organization has consistently ruled that because only the process is different, and not the final product itself, such barriers are illegal. The World Trade Organization has stated that if nations were able to enact barriers merely because the importing nation's standards differ from their own, control could be lost and barriers could be enacted around the world for frivolous reasons. However, many complain that these rulings go against the stated intentions of the World Trade Organization, and prove that the organization often puts commercial interests above environmental, ethical, or even human interests.
Famous quotes containing the words product, process and/or distinction:
“...In the past, as now, [Hollywood] was a stamping ground for tastelessness, violence, and hyperbole, but once upon a time it turned out a product which sweetened the flavor of life all over the world.”
—Anita Loos (1888–1981)
“A designer who is not also a couturier, who hasn’t learned the most refined mysteries of physically creating his models, is like a sculptor who gives his drawings to another man, an artisan, to accomplish. For him the truncated process of creating will always be an interrupted act of love, and his style will bear the shame of it, the impoverishment.”
—Yves Saint Laurent (b. 1936)
“There is a distinction to be drawn between true collectors and accumulators. Collectors are discriminating; accumulators act at random. The Collyer brothers, who died among the tons of newspapers and trash with which they filled every cubic foot of their house so that they could scarcely move, were a classic example of accumulators, but there are many of us whose houses are filled with all manner of things that we “can’t bear to throw away.””
—Russell Lynes (1910–1991)