The report, “Closing the Welfare Gap: Why the UK Must Apply Its Animal Protection Standards to Imports”, identifies gaps in animal welfare standards between the UK and those that export to it.
Key findings included the fact that 95% of the UK’s trading partners that can currently – or may soon – export animal products to the UK without tariffs have lower animal welfare standards than the UK, while several goods produced with methods banned in the UK are still allowed into the country (foie gras, battery cage eggs).
It warned that new trade agreements with countries such as the US and India may increase imports that don’t meet UK welfare standards, undermining decades of progress and proposed a legislative solution to require animal products imported into the UK to meet domestic animal welfare standards.
Uneven playing field
The report claimed that this discrepancy had created an uneven playing field which had disadvantaged higher-welfare British farmers. And as the UK forges ahead with its independent trade policy in the post-Brexit era, the risk of compromising animal welfare gains has intensified.
“Recent free trade agreements have set concerning precedents by allowing imports from systems that are illegal in the UK,” said Compassion in World Farming. “And negotiations with nations like India, Mexico and the US, threaten to further flood the UK market with lower-welfare products, potentially erasing decades of progress in animal protection.”
To avoid this outcome and support a more consistent approach that reflects British values and higher-welfare farming practices, the report calls on the Government to have comprehensive legislation on imports.
Mandy Carter, co-executive director at Animal Policy International, said the UK faced critical choices for how best to pursue a successful trade agenda with its upcoming trade strategy.
‘Race to the bottom’
“This really is a pivotal moment and we must act now to avoid this situation getting much worse,” said Carter. “Allowing imports with lower welfare standards creates a race to the bottom that sells out British values and farmers.
“Just as we regulate imports to safeguard our slaughter laws, we should also do so for production methods, protecting the values of British people and upholding our reputation. It’s time to close the welfare gap.”
Compassion in World Farming chief public affairs manager James West noted that 84% of British people supported the restriction or banning of low-welfare imports that did not meet UK standards.
“Despite this strong public sentiment, current regulations, except for slaughter, do not require UK farm animal welfare standards to be met for a product to be imported or sold in the UK,” he added. “It is imperative that the Government ensures all animal products sold in the UK, whether produced domestically or imported, meet British animal welfare standards.”
Make no concessions
David Bowles, head of public affairs at the RSPCA, said that any deal between the UK and the US to avoid tariffs must not make concessions that would allow imported animal products produced to very low welfare standards make their way onto our supermarket shelves
“As well as introducing low welfare products into the UK it would prevent a better trade deal with the EU and would undermine our own higher domestic standards – hitting the livelihoods of UK farmers hard; all while flying in the face of what many consumers want,” Bowles concluded.
Meanwhile, Dr Ricky Volpe, professor of Agribusiness at Cal Poly, examines the impacts Trump’s tariffs may have on food and drink businesses and how industry is likely to respond.
