National and international policies and legislation

In considering markets for meat, it is important to distinguish between what a market may want and what it can have. The objectives and operation of national and international policies and legislation are frequently at variance with those of the marketplace. Policies have been designed either to modify market signals or to offset some of their effects, principally on production, but also on consumption and trade. They usually place constraints on availability and/or radically alter price signals to producers. In a recent report (OECD, 1982), it was observed that

‘Government intervention in domestic and international meat markets is increasing. All major beef importing countries now control beef imports in some way or another. The introduction of the EEC Sheepmeat Regime could in the future have a major impact on the pattern of sheepmeat trade flows. The importation of meat by many of the newly developed markets is controlled by state trading institutions.’