Friday, April 15, 2022

Animal welfare as subjects of trade agreements?

I had blogged a few weeks ago about chapters in FTAs that are usually not seen in traditional trade agreements. This was in the context of New Zealand.

This time it is "animal welfare" that has taken its position in an FTA chapter as a separate chapter. the new UK-New Zealand FTA has, inter alia, a chapter on animal welfare. As per Article 6.1 of the FTA, the purpose of the provisions on animal welfare in a trade agreement is "to enhance cooperation between the Parties on animal welfare of farmed animals." It states that animals are sentient beings and protection and welfare of animals may be in the interest of a party's trade objectives.

The chapter recognises the right of parties to regulate with respect to animal welfare, not derogate from their animal welfare laws, exchange information, expertise, and experiences in the field of animal welfare with the aim of improving understanding of each other’s regulatory systems, policies, and strategic approaches, and enhancing animal welfare standards and also set up a working group to work on animal welfare issues.

The chapter is innovative in the sense that it places animal welfare as a "trade issue". It pretty much opens the door for any issue to be a trade agreement chapter. For those countries that are cautious about the scope of trade agreements, this can be problematic. For others, there is no limit to what trade can impinge upon.

The soft landing perhaps is the exclusion of the application of the dispute settlement provisions to the animal welfare chapter. One way of introducing innovative chapters in free trade agreements is to exclude it from the scope of dispute settlement. It takes enforcement out of the debate, but does push the agenda that both parties are interested in pursuing. Sensitivities on both sides taken care of perhaps?

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