SUPPLEMENTARY MEMORANDUM SUBMITTED BY
COMPASSION IN WORLD FARMING (S24)
1. As we explained in our earlier comments,
the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules have already inflicted
considerable damage on existing EU animal protection measures
and, moreover, are unduly constraining the EU's ability to introduce
good new animal welfare measures.
2. Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) believes
that, post-Seattle, the opportunity should be taken for the WTO
rules to be re-drawn to provide a proper balance between free
trade and ethical issues such as animal welfare.
3. At present we have a situation where
the WTO's free trade rules are the dominant piece of international
law and where other legitimate public policy considerations, such
as the environment, core labour standards, animal welfare and
the needs of developing countries, are compelled to take second
place at law to trade liberalisation. CIWF does not believe that
this is a reasonable or acceptable situation.
4. Even though the start of a new overall
Round has been delayed, negotiations to revise the WTO Agreement
on Agriculture (AoA) are likely to start before long. In the light
of the problems caused to animal welfare by the WTO rules, the
EU should insist that:
(a) farm animal welfare must be included
among the "non-trade concerns" which under Article 20
of the AoA must be taken into account during the negotiations
on the AoA; and
(b) that part of the package for a revised
AoA must include reforms designed to end the WTO rules' detrimental
impact on farm animal welfare.
5. One example will illustrate how damaging
the WTO rules are both to animal welfare and to the interests
of UK farmers. With sow stalls and tethers having been prohibited
in the UK, UK pig farmers are keen to see these cruel systems
being banned EU-wide. In fact tethers have already been prohibited
by the EU Pigs Directive, a ban which comes into force in 2006.
However, there is no EU ban on sow stalls. The scientific evidence
would support such a ban. In its 1997 report the European Commission's
Scientific Veterinary Committee (SVC) condemned sow stalls and
concluded that this system should be brought to an end.
At a recent meeting with the European Commission,
CIWF was told that the Commission accepts the SVC's scientific
conclusions, but that there are real fears, within the Commission
and the Member States, that if the EU were to ban sow stalls,
its pig producers could be undermined by the import of pigmeat
from third countries which continue to use this system.
In conclusion, without reforms of the WTO rules,
it may prove difficult to persuade the EU to ban the use of sow
stalls.
10 March 2000
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