OIE animal welfare standards and the multilateral tradepolicy framework

摘要

With the mandate granted by its Member Countries, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has taken a global leadership role in setting global animal welfare standards and has made an impressive number of achievements. In addressing the theme of animal welfare, the OIE built upon its existing standard-setting framework with the establishment of a permanent Animal Welfare Working Group (70th OIE General Session, 2002). This provided a forum for interested industry and non-governmental organisations to sit 'around the table' with representatives of the scientific community, academia and the official Veterinary Services. Based on recommendations from the Working Group to the elected Terrestrial Animal Health Standards Commission and with the consensual support of OIE Member Countries, the first standards on animal welfare were adopted in the Terrestrial Animal Health Code (the Terrestrial Code) in 2004. The guiding principles state that animal health is a fundamental component of animal welfare. Consistent with this fact, the Terrestrial Code also contains much information that is of general relevance to animal welfare, including, for example, recommendations on the quality of Veterinary Services and on disease prevention and control.The 22nd edition of the Terrestrial Code (2013) contains general principles and specific recommendations on animal welfare, covering key topics relevant to the systems of livestock production, stray dogs and animals used in research and education. The 16th edition (2013) of the Aquatic Animal Health Code contains general principles and specific recommendations on the welfare of farmed fish. All OIE standards are regularly updated to take account of the latest scientific findings.The multilateral trade policy framework, for the purposes of this paper, comprises the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements, specifically the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (the TBT Agreement). These agreements establish disciplines that must be respected by WTO Members when imposing measures on international trade in animals and animal products.This paper discusses the relevance and implications of the OIE animal welfare standards in the context of the multilateral and bilateral trade policy framework.