EEC FOOD LAW AND TRADE IN FOOD PRODUCTS

The paper first considers some of the legislation, and associate measures, affecting the availability, the form and presentation, and the price of foods to consumers. Little work seems to have been undertaken, and published, which would seek to establish the costs and benefits of ‘food law’. Food law can act as a non-tariff barrier; and within the EEC, because of the elimination of other barriers to trade, national legislation now attracts much press and political comment. The EEC's food law harmonisation programme, and the implications of the Cassis de Dijon case, are briefly reviewed. As with food law in general, there appears to be little economic appraisal of the EEC's measures.