Law and markets - Improving the legal environment for agricultural marketing

Good law is essential for the effective functioning of marketing systems. Inappropriate law can distort and reduce the efficiency of the market, increase the costs of doing business and retard the development of a competitive private sector. The need for agricultural marketing to be conducted within a supportive regulatory framework is now increasingly recognised. The end to central planning in some countries and moves towards marketing liberalization in many others, emphasises the importance of this fact.

A new publication, "Law and markets - Improving the legal environment for agricultural marketing" AGS Bulletin, No. 139, has been prepared by Cormac Cullinan of EnAct International, United Kingdom. By exploring a topic which has been much neglected in the past, it aims to provide policy-makers and law-makers with the necessary tools to evaluate the impact of existing law on marketing systems and to identify changes needed to achieve desired policy goals. Although it is primarily aimed at those interested in agricultural marketing, the approach adopted and the methodology outlined for analyzing the various effects of laws should also make this publication very relevant to specialists in other fields of agriculture who are concerned with the impact of the regulatory framework on their work.

Copies of "Law and markets - Improving the legal environment for agricultural marketing" AGS Bulletin, No. 139 (US$12.00), are available from FAO's Publications Unit . The publication can also be downloaded here.