Follow the food: Safety laws shape global trade

SNA of global trade patterns of corn shows that countries are more likely to trade with other countries which have similar food safety regulations. 

The report looked at import/export data for 217 countries from 2000 - 2009 and examined each nation's aflatoxin level regulations. As the largest exporter of corn worldwide, the US was at the center of one cluster. European nations tended to trade with each other due to Europe's more stringent aflatoxin regulations. 

As the network graph shows, US is at the center of a large cluster of North and Latin American nations, which themselves are hardly connected with each other or with other nations in the network, then this portion of the network of maize trade would become extremely vulnerable to reduced food supply and increased prices if anything should affect the quality or quantity of US maize available for export.