World Trade Organisation (WTO)

The issue

RSPCA International has been working with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for the last 15 years to agree methods within the WTO that would prevent free trade rules lowering animal welfare standards.

According to the WTO's Doha Development Agenda of 2001, a country cannot treat another country unfairly on the question of imports and exports, and must treat imported products from abroad the same as domestically produced goods.

In many cases no distinction can be seen in the final products, for example between a battery laid egg and a free range egg, making it impossible to distinguish whether they were produced using animal-friendly production methods. 

This has huge implications for animal welfare and also impacts on consumer ability to choose higher welfare products.  A 2005 Eurobarometer survey on animal welfare showed that over 75 per cent of EU citizens believe that they can influence animal welfare by their purchasing power, but 51 per cent said that they could never or rarely identify products from animal welfare-friendly systems.

The campaign

Talks on setting standards for trade in agricultural products started at the WTO in 2001. The European Union proposed that animal welfare should be included as an issue to be discussed. We have proposed 11 solutions to the current problems. Negotiations are now not expected to be agreed until 2012.

Seal imports and the WTO

In 2009, the EU banned the import of seal products due to the cruelty of the hunts. Canada has started WTO proceedings against the EU for this law. This could be the first case in the WTO on animal welfare and as such, is extremely important. We have prepared a briefing showing that we believe the import ban is compatible with WTO rules.

Read this paper to find out more:
Seals and trade rules can they live together (RSPCA 2007)(PDF 216KB)